North Korea: Sleeping giant of women’s football

“Usually when there are 30 shots in the game, it’s the United States with about 25 of ’em. Not today!”

The ESPN commentator wasn’t the only one shocked.

Heather O’Reilly scored the last goal of the game, pulling the world number one and two-time champion United States to a 2-2 draw in their opening match of the 2007 Women’s World Cup.

O’Reilly was not surprised by the scoreline. Or how evenly fought the game is. He knew it was hard.

However, when the final whistle blew, it was the attitude of the US opponents, who saw a chance to do nothing, rather than a point earned, that hit him.

“I remember North Korea seemed disappointed,” O’Reilly said.

“Their body language seems to be saying ‘oh my gosh, we’re about to topple the giant’.”

North Korea is the world’s most isolated country, a state based around the infallibility of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and a deep suspicion of the outside world.

However, despite living standards being better than most other countries, North Korea is 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 and among three Asian titles in a decade.

Their record is even better at the youth level. In 2016, they won the U20 Women’s World Cup, defeating Spain, the United States and France in the knockout rounds. In the same year, their under-17 team also raised their age-grade World Cup.

“The 2007 game was challenging, very intense,” O’Reilly recalled of his meeting with the senior North Korean side. “It’s hard to get the ball away from them, they’re making noise, very quickly.”

There is another challenge though, one unique to North Korea.

“It’s just a cloud of uncertainty,” O’Reilly said. “The film we have of them is very limited, even by the standards of the times.

“Every time we play North Korea, it’s always a mystery.”

The mystery now is, after the doping controversy and a four-year absence from international football, can North Korean women be a force again?