Tuesday, March 31, 2009

North Corea

In the World Cup of 1966 in England, the only non-European or South American nation to participate was North Corea. Prior to the tournament the unknown Asians were taunted as not good enough by the established football world, only to shock everyone in their first match, when they defeated Italy in a legendary match, and thus became the first non-European or non-South American team to reach the quarterfinals in a World Cup, where they were only barely defeated by Eusebio (and I am not even going to say Portugal, since he was a Mozambican, and with four goals singlehandedly won the match) by 5-3.
Since then, nobody has heard about football in the small Communist dictatorship.

But now North Corea seems to be on the way to South Africa 2010: in the Asian World Cup qualifiers group B North Corea is ahead, and is tomorrow looking forward to an intense match against South Corea in Seoul. South Corea has done great since their debut in the World Cup in 1986, but will surely have to play their best in a match that is surely about much more than football!

1 comment:

El Erik said...

South Corea won 1-0