One hangover later, we were on a train to Ulsan, we knew it was a train, because it was long and thin and had carriages, but that's where the similarity to Japan's network ended.

On arrival in Ulsan, we walked into town and found a bar where we could watch the all-important England v Brazil match. In the bar were two Englishmen, two bitter Jocks, two Irishmen and a balance of sceptics and Ruudi Voller clones. Hardly had we finished supping our first pitcher of lager, but us England lads were jumping with joy - we were beating the Brazilians! Our grins were bigger than one of Ronnie's Scotch pies.

When the samba boys sadly equalised, it was clear to see that even the fat folk from across the pond wanted Brazil to win Ronnie's namesake (but with more hair and teeth) was to make their dreams come true, wee Ronnie O'Shea was jumping up and down like a leprechaun who'd just found another pot o' gold, as the ball flew into the net.

Having cried into my beer (difficult when you`re drinking from a bottle), and wiped away the tears, we headed off to Ulsan stadium for the Germany v USA game, the Americans had really gotten into the spirit with painted faces, sprayed hair, and stars and stripes wherever they could fit them. Not to be outdone, some of the Germans were wearing coloured hats. The result was no big surprise, nor was ze folume of ze Chermans zinging during ze train ride back to Busan.

The only good result on Friday was that I managed to get hold of a ticket for the Korea v Spain game. I took the four-hour bus ride to Gwangju where (now draped in a Korean flag) I met up with Gavin, who'd sold me the ticket. Turns out he'd been given such a good offer for his own match ticket, he'd sold that too! Luckily he managed to find one at a lower price outside the ground (tickets have been available at almost every game if you have the cash, often less than face value).

The atmosphere in the stadium was enormous, never have I seen or heard a whole ground singing and jumping about in such unison, and with such commitment. The sea of red that can be seen on TV is not in fact Koreans wearing their team`s shirt, but a red T-shirt bearing the words "Be The Reds", almost every single person in Korea, from babies to grannies, are wearing them.

The noise and vigour of the crowd continued right to the final whistle, and then throughout the exciting extra time and penalties, but that was just the beginning. Outside the stadium and in town the real parties exploded. Completely knackered, I called it a day at three in the morning, but many Koreans would be seeing the sun rise long before seeing their beds.

Korea for the cup!