the reason why 2002 isn't being mentioned is because them south korean played in their yards.

the way i watched they played against paraguay,greece and some archive on their qualification,i'm really sure they played a very old skool (70s/80s)style of football.zig-zag 1-2,terraquista formation in the forward,etc

and they are anything but slow.i expect the brazillian to aim for setpiece

and last but not least,your dear leader will sure going to approve this thread

That striker cried during national anthem ..
He must be emo+proud+overhappy ..
but his first touch is poor..

that guy called North Korea's "Rooney" wor..

Dayum... they do look a decent side. They're shutting down Brazil's passing.

Ok. I'm officially impressed by the North Koreans now. Where to buy their jersey?

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Added on June 16, 2010, 3:42 amThat Jong guy looks pretty good.

This post has been edited by SweetPuff: Jun 16 2010, 03:42 AM

but they losing 1-0 la

If malaysia play in Wc...i oso cry....

North Korea's Rooney more like Beckham



June 15, 2010


He plays like Rooney but behaves more like Beckham. He loves his cars, his rap music and his clothes, and changes hairstyles more often than you can say " Kim Jong Il ".

North Korea striker Jong Tae Se is not your average North Korean.

Born and raised in Japan, the 26-year-old forward has never lived in communist North Korea, and says he has no plans to. He loves to shop, snowboard and dreams of marrying Korea's Posh Spice - none of which would be possible in the impoverished North, one of the most isolated countries in the world.

But he wears the Democratic People's Republic of Korea jersey with pride, and is moved to tears when he hears the country's anthem. The boy from Nagoya could become North Korea's biggest international soccer star since Pak Doo Ik scored the goal that knocked Italy out of the World Cup in 1966.

" He is Japanese but isn't a Japanese, he is Korean but is playing on the North Korean squad, he is a North Korean national but lives in Japan - all these things are very difficult for the world to understand, " Shin Mu Koeng, a friend and his biographer, said Tuesday from Tokyo.

North Korea is back in the World Cup for the first time in 44 years. They were the mystery team in 1966, and they're the mystery team in 2010. Very little is known about the team from North Korea, sheltered players mostly in their early 20s with limited international experience.

Jong, witty and personable, with a dazzling smile, cheeky personality and talent for making goals, gives lowest-ranked North Korea a bit of star power as they face teams from Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast stacked with big names.

Jong is quickly becoming his team's biggest personality and most powerful asset, setting himself apart on and off the field, from his fashion sense to his playing style.

On the pitch, Jong is fast and aggressive, North Korea's leading scorer with 16 goals in 24 international matches. His impressive play earned him comparisons to England's Wayne Rooney among South Korean media.

He collects sneakers and considers himself a bit of a fashion hound. Last Wednesday, he was sporting gelled hair. By Thursday he had shaved it all off. And he's not shy about admitting that he cried like a baby watching South Korea's most famous soap opera, " Winter Sonata ".

This is how he sees himself in five years : driving a car worthy of a rap star, with a pop star like one of the singers from the Wonder Girls - South Korea's version of the Spice Girls - on his arm, and playing for a big-name club in Europe.

Born in Nagoya to an ethnic Korean family, Jong inherited his father's South Korean citizenship but was raised and schooled in his mother's pro-North Korean community.

He is among Japan's nearly 600,000 " zainichi ", ethnic Koreans who live in Japan as long-term residents, many of them third- and fourth-generation descendants of labourers or conscripts who have lived there since Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.

Their first language may be Japanese, but Jong and midfielder An Yong Hak were raised within the zainichi community, attending Korean-language schools and pledging allegiance to North Korea founder Kim Il Sung and current leader Kim Jong Il.

Still, Jong's zainichi background sets him apart. He says he never travels without his iPod, laptop and Nintendo, much to the curiosity of teammates from a country with only one state-run TV channel where such luxuries are reserved for top officials.

Their games are simple: rock, scissors and paper are enough to send them into fits of shouts and laughter, he says. Teammates flock to his room during overseas matches, asking to listen to his music, play Super Mario, borrow his books or fluorescent Nike running shoes and hear about life in the J-League - including how much money he makes.

But Jong has said he admires his North Korean teammates' passion for football, and noted that they are largely indifferent to money and materialism.

" He had many doubts, but as he trained with the North Korean players, he saw their pureness, " said Shin, whose biography about Jong was released in South Korea and Japan. " They never complained about the inadequacies and they did their absolute best. "

" They were playing for their team and for victory, nothing else. "

Jong is also well aware of the controversies surrounding North Korea, which remains locked in a stand-off with the international community over its nuclear program and has been hauled before the UN Security Council on accusations of sinking a South Korean warship in March.

Don't expect him to move anytime soon to Pyongyang.

" My homeland is not Japan. There's another country in Japan, called Zainichi, " he says. " None of these countries - South Korea, North Korea and Japan - can be my home country, because I'm a zainichi and therefore Zainichi is my native land.

" And I think that's the purpose of my life - letting the world know of the zainichi existence. "


- AP -

He played very well imo, especially the first half.

Jong Tae-Se

To say for a first game and first appearance after so many years, North Korean has proved to many people that passion and desire beats everything. I will view this achievement as good as South Korea and Japan opener.

i wonder what malaysia first world cup final would be like, if by some miracle the FAM get their act together and we actually qualify.

must be mixed emotion...hahah...i think...it will need a whole new generation to qualify to the world cup..north korea players mostly play around asia..ours?? aim too high..wanna play around europe...try j-league and asean league first...the best physical league around asia will be australia league...

blame the manager(and the players),not the management

we've been playing european style since the nineties.not that it's a bad thing but considering our so-so physical stature we got to find something more suitable for our player.the south korean and japanese players compensate their lack of height and strengh with pace and super accurate,high speed long range pass and some technical skills.the only reason we're top in SEA is because the rest of SEA isn't that much good either

and our players isn't quite motivated too.in the super league,the only clubs that shows genuine competitive nature is kelantan and selangor.many are too lazy to move upfront/down without the ball,lazy to open up the game,lazy to chase long passes,etc

but i agree with one of our ex-player though.we should aim low first.be a strong competitor at asian cup first,and then the olympic and lastly the world cup

i dont think how tall the player is make that much a different, there is just 10 cm between the average tallest team and the shortest.

http://theglobalherald.com/fifa-world-cup-...est-teams/4368/

Argentina height is 1.78M but facing the tall serbian team they will still have all the advantage, the skill of passing the ball fast and precise is key, we are still doing the long ball kick and rush play that are too easy to defend against. i am blaming FAM because there is not enough long term effort to develop the young player and promote the local league, football in malaysia are dominated by the premier league while the local league are under funded and lack support.

i like malaysia to emulate what german have done to develop their youth player, they make ever club to open a youth acedemy and them promote young player to the national team quickly.