Lyon’s Korean Adventure

By: Inara | July 11th, 2007

It’s Peace Cup time!!!

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The official Peace Cup Bunnies say hi! (visit their photo album for more Peace Cup Bunny goodness).

Today, after a morning workout, OL players packed their bags and left for Korea (pics at bottom of post), where they will compete against other teams from around the world in the hopes of reaching the finals (and winning the $2,000,000 cash prize!). For those of you who don’t know your OL history, Lyon participated in the two previous editions of the Peace Cup, reaching the final both times.

Unfortunately, they also lost both times, to PSV in 2003 and to Tottenham Hotspurs in 2005. But let’s not get into that right now.

In a previous post, I went over the participating groups and competition dates. The only thing that has changed (though it doesn’t directly affect Lyon) is that Udinese have dropped out and were replaced by Racing Santander of Spain.

Lyon match dates:

July 13: S-Pulse v Lyon
July 16: Reading v Lyon
July 19: Lyon v River Plate
July 21: Final (possible participation)

Should you for some reason be in South Korea next week, you can purchase tickets here.

Unfortunately for Peace Cup fans, Juninho will not be making the trip to Korea. Due to a last minute (and rather convenient) muscle tear, he’ll be staying behind in order to heal. His absence is a blow to the organizers, as Juni was one of the biggest draws in the tournament.

Lyon squad for Peace Cup: Coupet, Vercoutre, Hartock – Belhadj, Réveillère, Squillaci, Cris, Müller, Clerc, Grosso, Paillot – Diarra, Bodmer, Toulalan, Källström, Santos, Mounier – Rémy, Baros, Ben Arfa, Benzema, Govou, Keita.

Besides Juninho and Fred (both injured), Romain Beynie was also left behind, as well as Remy Riou, who is currently without a club to go on loan to. And no, Sylvain Wiltord isn’t going either (and possibly won’t be returning to Lyon…yikes). But Anthony Mounier has been included, no doubt as a reward for his performances this past week. And yes, Lyon’s newest Fabio is going too. Hopefully he can use the 14 hour plane ride to bond with his new teammates.

I’ll keep you guys updated on Lyon’s Korean Adventure. I’m not sure if these games will be broadcasted, though if you’re a subscriber to OLWEB TV, you can watch the games live on the club’s website. I’ll let you all know if they show it anywhere else.

And finally, the promotional video for the Peace Cup. It’s in Korean, but you don’t need to understand what’s being said since it’s pretty obvious. Also, it’s fun to listen to how different names sound in Korean.