EXCLUSIVE: Portugal v North Korea - The Aftermath
23rd June 2010
How was the heavy defeat to Portugal received amongst the North Korean faithful? Our Man in Pyongyang finds out...
Monday 21 June was a glorious day in Pyongyang. The sky was bright blue and cloudless, and the mercury nudged the 30 degree mark on the thermometer. The Rodong Shinmun ran a story highlighting the positive international press reports generated by the DPRK’s valiant performance during their defeat to Brazil six days previously. Ahead of their country’s game against Portugal later that evening, the North Korean public had been whipped into a frenzy of optimism, and the excitement levels rose yet further when it was announced that the game had been chosen as the first from overseas to be broadcast live on DPRK television.
Compare and contrast with Tuesday 22 June. As if mirroring the now very different mood of the nation, the day began with some dull and dismal weather. The hope that sprang eternal less than 24 hours previously had been unceremoniously extinguished in the pouring rain of Cape Town. The Portuguese had been ruthless, ripping the DPRK defence asunder and emerging with a 7-0 victory.
How could it have gone so badly wrong? Where was the disciplined defensive performance that won so many admirers less than a week ago? Who was to blame? These were the pertinent questions to which fans of the team craved answers.
It probably isn’t the first time that coach Kim Jong Hun has had to indulge in a little self-criticism, but his admission that the drubbing was entirely his fault was a very public act of verbal self-flagellation. A number of fans that I spoke to agreed that Kim had got his tactics all wrong. Instead of defending in numbers and constantly pressurising the opponent in possession, as they did in their opener, the Chollima were set-up to give it a go from fairly early on. Of course, if the DPRK had taken a couple of chances that fell their way during the first 45 minutes, things could have been oh so different. It wasn’t even a disaster that the Koreans went into the interval a goal behind; they might have kept it tight at the back and gambled on the counter-attack, a tactic which served them well against Brazil when they created some decent opportunities late in the game. But as star striker Jong Tae Se, tears in eyes once more, simply stated, “we lost our concentration in the second half and committed many mistakes." There was no patience to the DPRK’s play early in the second half, and they left themselves totally exposed to wave after wave of Portuguese attack.
One anonymous South Korean official said that the blame lay at someone else’s door, namely that of DPRK leader Kim Jong Il. Reminding readers that Kim Jong Hun had made the outrageous claim that the Dear Leader, “"gives [me] regular tactical advice during matches using mobile phones that are not visible to the naked eye," the source told Yonhap news agency that it necessarily followed that defeat was the fault of KJI. Another source stated that the tactics employed on the night were not those which were usually employed by the DPRK coach. "Kim Jong Hun, who is composed and laid-back, adheres to defence-oriented tactics since he was formerly a defender, but North Korea played an unreasonable offence-oriented tactics at the time when the gap was widening," the source said. This statement, however, doesn’t support Yonhap’s assertion that ‘he must have been pressured from someone outside’. Maybe he just got a bit carried away after the positive performance against Brazil and felt that his side could afford to give it a go against Portugal. Not surprisingly, I haven’t heard any accusation of culpability leveled at the Dear Leader from any North Koreans that I’ve spoken to regarding the game.
Kim Jing Hun did at least receive some words of support from the manager who took the Chollima to the World Cup quarter-final back in 1966. "World football has developed remarkably,” Myong Rye Hyon told the Asian Football Confederation website. “And DPR Korea has also done well to keep up with world trends. They qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals after 44 years. They are football powers. A major strong point of the DPR Korea squad is the coach Kim Jong-hun, who has a good football brain." Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz also took the time to demonstrate some graciousness in victory. “I’d like to register my respect for the North Korean team whose players played in an extremely dignified manner from start to finish without fouling any of their opponents and with their heads held high,” he said. “I’d like to tell the North Korean coach that sometimes we have to face these results and I’d like to congratulate and give my respect to the North Korean coach.”
The Associated Press Television News (APTN) was on hand in Pyongyang to get an instant reaction from the brother of goalkeeper Ri Myong Guk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL1b3pAxjYA). He was much more upbeat in the immediate aftermath than the Koreans I watched the game with, putting the heavy defeat down to the fact that the DPRK team simply lacked experience. Son Chung Il, a winger who plays for the Kigwancha (the team of the railway workers based in the border city of Sinuiju), was rather more scathing in his criticism. Interviewed the next morning, again by APTN, Son reportedly said that, “as a fellow football player I am disappointed and embarrassed at the team having lost so many goals."
There were no reports of the game in either Tuesday or Wednesday’s editions of the Rodong Shinmun newspaper. A rumour circulated in Pyongyang on Wednesday afternoon that three Portuguese players had failed drugs tests and that there was a chance that the points might have been awarded to the DPRK, but this was probably nothing more than a bit of mischief-making. In any case, the mood of the people seemed to have lifted a little today, having come to terms with the manner of the defeat and living in hope that the players, as they have promised, will restore some pride when they take on the Ivory Coast on Friday – a match which probably won’t be shown live on DPRK TV...
Our Man in Pyongyang
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bill
:::2010-06-24 02:52:58
awooga
Jamie
:::2010-06-24 05:02:43
Fascinating to read your blog, I’ve been interested in North Korea for a while and contemplating a trip there next year. Are their many foreigners living in the city?
As far as football goes, living in Tokyo I´ve had a lot of opportunities to see Chong Tese (who is actually a South Korean, born in Japan) and he really is a cut above all the other Asian J-league strikers, but don’t the North Korean’s mind having a foreigner as their people’s `Rooney`? It’s also interesting to note that the players all wear branded football boots etc, yet is branded equipment available in the communist country?
Also, what kind of excuse does the government make for not showing the game live? American TV companies monopolising the licenses etc...?
Our Man in Pyongyang
:::2010-06-24 10:39:22
Jamie - thanks for your comments.
I´m not sure exactly how many foreigners there are in Pyongyang; at a rough guestimate, I´d say about 500. Most would probably be Chinese, either diplomats or involved in trade of some description.
I don´t know what kind of boots your average player in the DPRK naional championship would wear, but when it comes to kitting out the national team, I´m sure that ways and means can be found to supply the players with half-decent equipment. I can only think of one shop in Pyongyang that might sell some German sporting goods, but haven´t been there in a while to be able to say with authority that you´d be able to get a pair of Adidas or Puma boots. In any case, such hard currency shops usually stock items which are priced well out of the reach of ordinary Koreans.
The government, as far as I know, doesn´t make any excuses for not showing live games. There is no history or culture of doing so, so the people don´t think they are missing out. No-one is going to complain in any case.
Cheers for now
Andy Hume
:::2010-06-25 01:55:23
Fascinating blog, I live in Seoul and visited Pyongyang a couple of months ago, so particularly interested in how North Koreans reacted to this match. (They were talking about little else than playing Brazil and Portugal, even in April.)
I can tell you that South Koreans are cheering on the North pretty vociferously, the bars I was in on Monday reacted to every DPRK attack as if they were the home team. One of my [Korean] colleagues shouted for Portugal as a joke and got some fairly frosty looks from other customers.
Off-topic, a few weeks ago I saw a T-shirt that purported to be from the Glasgow Rangers supporters´ club in Pyongyang... do you know anything about this? I quite like the idea of a "Chosun Few" shirt!
Our Man in Pyongyang
:::2010-06-25 17:46:54
Andy - Thanks for your comments.
Hope you enjoyed your time in Pyongyang. Even if you sheparded around at all times, it´s still a unique experience.
Brilliant to hear that fans in the south were backing their nothern brethern, even at a time when inter-Korean relations are fairly strained.
I can confirm that there is a Pyongyang Chosun Few Rangers Supporters´ Club, comprised of an ex-pat Brit and a few native Koreans. They are hoping to recruit more members in the coming months. The guy who founded the club is a sound lad, although he does tend to bang on a bit about how much of a legend Davie Weir is!
All the best
OMIP
Tad
:::2010-06-26 14:47:16
Hey great article, would be good if you could get in touch news@nknews.org
I run a North Korea news aggregation and analysis website (www.nknews.org) and should hopefully be going back to Pyongyang later in the year if you want to go for a beer!
Renato
:::2010-06-26 23:53:43
Great reports. I´m a Brazilian living in Seoul for 4 years now, and never had a chance to visit the DPRK. I hope I can make it in the next years.
And I second what Andy said: when I asked koreans here if they would root for Brasil or DPRK, they gave me those funny looks and tried to avoid the topic... :-)
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