World Cup 2010, Qualifying
North Korean players pose with an image of Kim Jong-il iafter qualifying for the World Cup. 19 June, 2009
Last week saw four Asian teams qualify for World Cup 2010, with two more rounds remaining to see if a final spot will go to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, or New Zealand. Wednesday was the conclusion to the Fourth Round of qualifying, with hosts South Africa and European qualifiers the Netherlands joined by Australia, Japan (both from Group A), South Korea, and North Korea (from Group B). North Korea pulled off a goalless draw in Riyadh on a day where either North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or Iran could have grabbed the final automatic berth in the group.
North Korea has qualified for the World Cup once before - England 1966 - and managed to reach the quarter-finals in their previous outing. They lost to the USSR (3-0), and tied Chile (1-1) before beating Italy (1-0) in their final match of the group stage to jump over Italy in the standings and qualify for the quarter-finals. They took a 3-0 lead against a Portugal side led by the world-class Eusébio before the Mozambican-born striker scored four goals that pushed the match to 3-5. It would be another 36 years before South Korea managed to record a World Cup win of their own. The documentary The Game of Their Lives, released in 2002, is an account of the seven surviving members of the North Korean team that competed at the 1966 World Cup.
Iranian fans in Seoul, 17 June, 2009
On the same day that North Korea was playing in the Middle East, Seoul was hosting the match between South Korea and Iran. Eight of the eleven players on the field for the match were wearing green wristbands in support of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, while Ali Karimi chose to wear a green captain's armband for the game. Time.com has an article on the match that includes the following:
Outside the stadium in Seoul, before the game kicked off, dozens of Iranian fans staged a mini-protest of their own, unfurling a banner that read "Go to Hell, Dictator" and chanting, "Compatriots, we will be with you to the end with the same heart." The banner was spotted again during the game, along with signs reading "Where Is My Vote?" (a slogan widely displayed on June 16 during street demonstrations in Tehran) and Iranian national flags with "Free Iran" written across them.
That was an extremely brave act for the national team members as, unlike citizens in Tehran, there was absolutely no way for them to hide behind anonymity in making their views known. Current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a soccer fan and no doubt watched the game - along with several million other Iranians - though I haven't heard anything about potential 'punishments' for the participating players. Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, was notorious for punishing players after poor results:
A series of poor passes, carefully counted, could result in a player's being forced to stand before the president's son in the dressing room, hands at his side, while he was punched or slapped in the face an equal number of times.
But those were the lesser miseries. Some players endured long periods in a military prison, beaten on their backs with electric cables until blood flowed. Other punishments included "matches" kicking concrete balls around the prison yard in 130-degree heat, and 12-hour sessions of push-ups, sprints and other fitness drills, wearing heavy military fatigues and boots.
Here's to hoping the Iranian players don't suffer a similar fate in the charged atmosphere of post-election Tehran. More pictures available here.