North Korea

:: North Korea football news ::

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North Korea were the great unknown going into the World Cup finals in South Africa, their first participation in FIFA’s showpiece event since 1966. They scraped through the Asian qualifying section with some solid defensive performances but had no household names in their squad. A handful of their players are based in Japan and Russia but it was largely a squad draw from domestic players that arrived in Africa. Drawn into what looked like the toughest group, expectations were low although the players themselves seemed confident enough as they lined up to face Brazil in their opening fixture.

To everyone’s surprise, they held the five times world champions for almost an hour with an energetic and well-drilled pressing game. Brazil seemed to be running out of idea for how to break them down when they got lucky, or produced a fine piece of skill depending on your point of view, to break the deadlock. Maicon got in behind the Korean left-back and bore down on goal where ‘keeper Ri Myong Guk was slightly off his line. The Brazilian fullback drilled the ball into the gap at the near post but many observers thought that he was actually attempting a cross. The Korean’s head’s didn’t drop and they stuck doggedly to their task but they were undone again in the 72nd minute when Robinho found Elano with a beautiful pass and the midfielder slotted the ball home to double the lead. Perhaps Brazil took their collective foot slightly off the pedal at this point, but Korea seemed to slowly come back into the game and threaten at the other end of the pitch, culminating in a well-taken last minute strike from Ji Yun Nam to give Brazil a scary final few seconds.

To have played so well for so long against Brazil and come away with nothing must have been a bit demoralising for North Korea and the physical effort seemed to take a toll as well if their performance in their second game, against Portugal, is anything to go by. They started off well enough and got through the first half hour on level terms with the Portuguese but this time once they went behind heads dropped and the floodgates opened. Meireles opened the scoring on the half hour and goals then rained in throughout the second period as the defending got worse and worse. The ball had been in the Korean net on seven occasions by the time the Chilean referee blew the final whistle and North Korea were mathematically out of the competition with a game to play.

They managed to keep the score to a respectable 0-3 in the final group game against the Ivory Coast, but exited the tournament having played three, lost three and with a goal difference of minus eleven. Still, they will have learnt a lot from the experience and hopefully enjoyed some of it and perhaps we will see them back on the world stage again without having to wait another 44 years. They have plenty of promising players who would only benefit from playing a higher standard of football week in week out but it remains to be seen whether many of them will be allowed to move overseas.

The North Korean squad submitted to FIFA was as follows:

NUMBER – POSITION – NAME – AGE- CLUB

1 – GK – RI Myong Guk – 23 – Pyongyang City
18 – GK – KIM Myong Gil – 25 – Amrokgang
20 – GK – KIM Myong Won – 26 – Amrokgang
2 – DF – CHA Jong Hyok – 24 – Amrokgang
3 – DF – RI Jun Il – 22 – Sobaeksu
5 – DF – RI Kwang Chon – 24 – April 25
8 – DF – JI Yun Nam – 33 – April 25
13 – DF – PAK Chol Jin – 24 – Amrokgang
14 – DF – PAK Nam Chol – 21 – Amrokgang
16 – DF – NAM Song Chol – 28 – April 25
21 – DF – RI Kwang Hyok – 22 – Kyonggongop
4 – MF – PAK Nam Chol – 24 – April 25
6 – MF – KIM Kum Il – 22 – April 25
11 – MF – MUN In Guk – 31 – April 25
15 – MF – KIM Yong Jun – 26 – Pyongyang City
17 – MF – AN Yong Hak – 31 – Omiya Ardija
19 – MF – RI Chol Myong – 22 – Pyongyang City
22 – MF – KIM Kyong Il – 21 – Rimyongsu
23 – MF – PAK Sung Hyok – 20 – Sobaeksu
7 – FW – AN Chol Hyok – 22 – Rimyongsu
9 – FW – JONG Tae Se – 26 – Kawasaki Frontale
10 – FW – HONG Yong Jo – 28 – FK Rostov
12 – FW – CHOE Kum Chol – 23 – April 25