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Sweet sixteen for North Korea’s women at Asian Games
JAKARTA, Aug 18, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – It is a scoreline so audacious even Kim
Jong Il would have blushed.
North Korea’s women’s football team thrashed Tajikistan 16-0 at the Asian
Games on Friday, a merciless demolition which saw three players score hat-
tricks.
Unlike their former leader’s legendary first-ever round of golf — in which
he claimed to hit 11 holes-in-one — the footballers’ achievement is recorded
in the official record books of Asia’s regional Olympics.
North Korea’s women, whose win equalled the tournament record, have long
been elite-level international performers.
Pyongyang has invested in sporting success in recent times, opening an
elite football academy for young boys and girls five years ago in the
capital, as well as a top-class ski resort.
But the women’s success has far outstripped their male counterparts,
including three Asian Games gold medals, three Asian Cups and the last under-
17 and under-20 World Cups.
Current leader Kim Jong Un appears to have taken particular interest in
women’s football, reportedly visiting the team in training before the last
Asian Games to offer “valuable instruction on how to win the gold medal”.
They went on to win the tournament.
The following year he hugged returning members of the victorious East Asian
Cup campaign at Pyongyang airport, praising their “guerrilla-style” tactics
and “indefatigable mental prowess”, according to state news agency KCNA.
But things have not always been so straightforward for the North’s female
footballers.
They were banned from the 2015 Women’s World Cup after five players failed
drugs tests at the previous edition in 2011.
The team doctor at the time blamed the test results on a “Chinese remedy”
made from musk deer glands to treat players who had been struck by lightning.
MORE/MR/ 1200 hrs
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International sanctions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons
programme continue to hamper financing for the country’s footballing
ambitions, such as sending stars to top European clubs.
And the team will miss out on next year’s World Cup in France after being
narrowly edged out in early qualifying by neighbours South Korea — a country
with which the North remains technically at war.
– ‘Nervous’ loss –
Even so, the North’s women continue to leave their male counterparts in
their wake.
North Korea’s men’s team coach Ju Soyg Il apologised Friday for his
“nervous” players after a heavy defeat to Iran left his side on the brink of
an early exit from the same tournament.
The 3-0 loss means the men’s team need a win in their final match to have a
chance of avoiding group-stage elimination — just four years after they
reached the final.
“We have to find the reasons why we lost the matches. One reason is that
many of the players may be nervous,” an ashen-faced Ju told reporters after
the match.
“The players were psychologically down.”
Ju also blamed referee decisions for his team’s loss Friday — North Korea
had a player sent off and conceded a penalty in a fiery second half — but
pledged to “learn lessons” from the setbacks.
It leaves North Korea’s men needing to beat Saudi Arabia and rely on
results elsewhere to progress.
Unsurprisingly, the women’s team top their group — albeit on goal
difference over China, who could only manage to overcome Hong Kong 7-0.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1200 hrs