North Koreans make another run at World Cup glory

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The number one ranked U.S. Women’s Soccer team was very nearly embarrassed yesterday when they were forced to come back from behind against North Korea to tie 2-2 at the Women’s World Cup in Chengdu, China. Football-ignorant Americans might be forgiven for not knowing that the hermit kingdom even fields an international team, but the North Korean women are actually ranked number five in the world. This is also not the first time North Koreans have distinguished themselves in the pitch. In a classic Cinderella story, the 1966 men’s team tied Chile and beat heavily favored Italy to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup where they very nearly upset Portugal as well, winning many international fans with their aggressive style of play. North Korea’s then-leader Kim Il Sung had these words of encouragement for his team:

Europeans and South American nations dominate international football. As the representatives of the Africa and Asian region, as coloured people, I urge you to win one or two matches.

Surprisingly, the normally effusive Korean Central News Agency of DPRK devoted only a one sentence blurb to the women’s team humbling the country’s greatest international rival. Kim Jong Il has also failed to comment. Dear Leader is known to be an avid sportsman however, having apparently scored 11 holes-in-one the first time he played golf.