North Korea keeps World Cup Dreams Alive
HONG KONG: Hard as it is to believe, North Korea is moving ahead in football. The North Korea’s football team is firmly on course for the 2010 World Cup. It reached the last round of qualifying without la .loss or even conceding a goal.

If they do make it, it will be the North Korea’s first World Cup in 44 years. The isolated Communist country is down in world ranking of 94. Even countries like Gambia and Suriname ranks at higher level than North Korea.

This endeavor should be read along with the in-house turmoil that burns the country. This Communist country ruled with an iron fist by Kim Jong-Il, is believed to be suffering acute food shortages, reviving memories of a famine in the 1990s leading to the death of one million people. Known more for its nuclear weapons program and dubious human rights record, North Korea, have hardly endeared themselves either with their defensive brand of football. But still they made it.

In the previous qualifying group North Korea scored just four goals in their three wins and three draws. But they succeeded in maintaining a clean sheet every time with a solid rearguard action.

With big shots like Brazil sitting uncomfortably in their qualifying group on the other side of the world and other end of the football spectrum, it raises the spectre of a World Cup with North Korea. Only a few among the North Korean players boot outside the North Korean borders and one among them is 24-year-old striker Jong Tae-Se, of Kawasaki Frontale, a mid-table side in Japan’s J-League. Japan-born Jong, dubbed “Asia’s Wayne Rooney” by South Korean media, has no doubt of North Korea’s entry into South Africa 2010 despite being drawn in the harder of two final Asian qualifying groups.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 12:02 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.