✨ Read this trending post from BBC Sport 📖
📂 Category:
📌 Here’s what you’ll learn:
“Normally when there are 30 shots in a game, the USA has about 25 of them. Not today!”
The ESPN commentator wasn’t the only one who was shocked.
Heather O’Reilly scored the final goal of the match, drawing the world No. 1 and two-time world champions to a 2-2 draw in the opening match of the 2007 Women’s World Cup.
But O’Reilly was not surprised by the result. Or how even the game was. She knew it would be difficult.
Instead, as the final whistle blew, it was the attitude of the US’s opponents, who saw an opportunity lost, not a point gained, that shocked it.
“I remember North Korea seemed frustrated,” O’Reilly says.
“Their body language seemed to say, ‘Oh my God, we were so close to taking down the giant.’”
North Korea is the most isolated country in the world, a country built on the infallibility of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and a deep suspicion of the outside world.
However, although living standards lag significantly behind most other countries, North Korea has been one of the strongest women’s football nations on the planet.
When they faced the United States in 2007, they were ranked fifth in the world amid a run of three Asian titles in the space of a decade.
Their record at youth level is better. In 2016, they won the U-20 Women’s World Cup, defeating Spain, the United States and France in the knockout rounds. In the same year, their under-17 team also lifted the age group World Cup.
“The match in 2007 was very challenging, very difficult,” O’Reilly recalls of her encounter with the North Korean national team. “It was difficult to get the ball away from them, they were moving so fast.”
However, there was another challenge, which was unique to North Korea.
“It was just a cloud of uncertainty,” O’Reilly says. “The film we showed them was very limited, even by the standards of the era.
“Every time we played North Korea, it was always a mystery.”
The puzzle now is, after the doping controversy and four-year absence from international football, can North Korea’s women become a force again?
🔥 Tell us your thoughts in comments!
#️⃣ #North #Korea #sleeping #giant #womens #football
