Brazil in the World Cup 2010

Brazil will play against North Korea on June 15th 2010, in Johannesburg; that will be the first match of Brazil in the World Cup 2010.

This will be the first time that Brazil will face North Korea. North Korea is a very closed communist country (the North Korean Government announced that the World Cup will be censored, and only images favorable to the country will be aired – which means that it is likely that the Cup will not exist for Korean citizens), and very seldom performs in non-official matches.

Coincidentally, Brazil is one of the countries in the world which best knows the football in North Korea. There is a team, currently disputing the Second Division in Sao Paulo, called Clube Atletico Sorocaba; in 2000, Atletico Sorocaba was purchased by Reverend Moon, a controversial religious leader born in Korea. Thanks to these connections, Atletico Sorocaba played a friendly match against the North Korea national team in November of 2009, which finished 0 x 0.

North Korea played in only one Cup, in England 1966; in that Cup, Korea lost to Soviet Union, tied with Chile and got past the groups stage by winning Italy; in the quarter-finals, Korea lost to Portugal by 3 x 5, after being leading by 3 x 0.

Coach Dunga said in an interview that North Korea being unknown shall be a reason of concern, not of oblivion; besides the surprising role in England 1966, Korea surprised also by winning Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Qualifying, and by winning recent FIFA World Cups for Young Women.

However, nobody in Brazil thinks of anything but a victory over Korea. Brazil hope (but many Brazilians don’t expect) that Portugal win Ivory Coast in the first round, Brazil win Ivory Coast in the second round, so that Brazil vs Portugal can be just a friendly match.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 9:04 pm and is filed under countries, history, matches.