An application to speak to a North Korean sports journalist after the match was also rejected. That was a word I got used to hearing a lot during my week-long visit.
There was not a Kim portrait in sight. When the match kicked off, there was also little sign of the speed of the Chollima, the mythical winged horse whose swift footedness inspired North Korea's World Cup quarter-finalists.
The present-day North Koreans were a solid enough outfit, but they lacked a certain spark. But they had nothing more to offer," Geynrikh said. Given that they are a team from an austere socialist society where the collective is afforded considerably more importance than the individual, it was not too surprising that the North Koreans were not blessed with flair and style. It was equally predictable that the striker Jong Tae-se, an ethnic Korean who lives in Japan, would be the one exception to this stifling conformity.
A constant threat in front of the Uzbekistan goal, Jong seemed to have lost none of the skill that earned him the moniker of "North Korea's Wayne Rooney" at the World Cup. Not that too many people in the crowd were likely to have heard of Rooney. Football, we are told time and time again, is a universal language that transcends culture, politics and geography. On the whole, that's true. Just not in North Korea. North Korea's self-imposed isolation and media blackout means that only a small percentage of the crowd — those from the more clued-up elite — would have been familiar with the stars of Europe's top leagues.
Here, boys kicking balls in the streets do not wear Manchester United or Arsenal replica shirts. There is, however, no doubt that football is big in North Korea. Perhaps even, for the authorities at least, too big. In , violence broke out on the terraces and on the streets as North Korea lost to Iran in a World Cup qualifier at the Kim Il-sung stadium in Pyongyang.
The disturbances started after the North Korean defender Nam Song-chol was sent off for pushing the Syrian referee. Maybe this Fifa investigation can clear the air. Radio Free Asia report. The match against Portugal was broadcast live in North Korea - the team lost Mystery men. Published 9 June In June, the North Korean soccer team dropped ignominiously out of the World Cup without a point after conceding 12 goals in three games.
Since the players returned home, they have been publicly shamed, according to reports. The manager has been forced to become a construction worker, and there are fears for his safety.
North Korea is one of the most oppressive regimes on earth. The soccer team's first game was not televised in the country, for fear of embarrassment. But when the team put up a remarkably good show against Brazil, narrowly losing , hopes were raised and the second game against Portugal was shown.
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