North Korea had never shown a match played by their national football team on foreign soil until yesterday. While this is positive for a nation sheltered under the tyrannical rule of Kim Young-Il, the downside was that they were battered 7-0 by Portugal. Mr Young-Il must hope, perversely, that his people have seen enough and that he can slam his iron curtain shut once more.
With the North Koreans on their way home following two losses, the chances of we, the outside world, gaining any fresh knowledge of this secretive nation are also drawing to a close. After a tetchy first press conference in which manager Kim Jong-Hun refused to be recognised as North Korea (the official title is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK) being the team’s last, we do not have much to go on.
We know much of their only other appearance in a World Cup finals tournament, in England in 1966. Although 44 years have passed since then the situation was much the same then as it is now. The nation was shrowded in mystery and subsequently aroused suspicions worldwide. They were nearly denied visas by the English authorities, who eventually backed down because they feared the tournament may be taken off their hands.
They were, however, involved in two matches that are still being talked about to this day. Firstly they beat Italy (who even by then had won the tournament twice) 1-0 to gain a place in the quarter-finals, which was the last time they played Portugal before yesterday. Having led by three goals after half an hour they then conceded five, four of which were scored by Benfica’s Mercurial striker Eusebio.
En route to the current World Cup, in South Africa, DPRK played their Southern neighbours over two legs. Unsurprisingly both encounters were full of controversy. The first leg was moved from North Korea to neutral China after the DPRK refused to play the anthem or fly the flag of South Korea. South Korea then won their home fixture, before which many the DPR team came down with food poisoning. The DPRK blamed South Korean secret services and described the alleged act as “moves towards confrontation”.
If this seems a little excessive the verdict of a defector of the regime (interviewed by the BBC in Seoul, South Korea) to his former country’s performance yesterday reads like an excerpt from George Orwell’s iconic novel 1984 and says much about the attitude of this country and their leader. “The result will be blamed on their weak minds," he said, “I'm sure the players will have to go though extreme re-education and self-criticism.”
Like the Big Brother of 1984, Kim Young-Il does not take kindly to criticism. Maybe this is why the match was shown 12 hours later than when it actually took place, so any protest could be cleverly edited out. If this was the case, the editors were not able to mask the seven easy goals conceded to six different Portugal players. The humble Jong-Hun (who incidentally also coaches the DPRK Army team) dutifully took responsibility, blaming his adventurous tactics for the holes in the defence that were so ruthlessly exposed.
However, maybe the players felt the pressure of millions of eyes watching them at home; of representing their proud nation at the World Cup in front of their comrades. The team managed to limit five-time World Cup winners Brazil to a just a one goal victory in their first fixture, so it seems likely that there was an outside factor affecting the performance against Portugal. If that was the case then maybe this is that last the people of North Korea will get to see of their national team abroad. On yesterday’s showing, perhaps that is a good thing.
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