The North Korean national team has reportedly asked the Japan Football Association for more away seats for their match against Japan at the Tokyo National Stadium.
According to a JFA official, the 3,000 away seats allocated by the JFA to the North Korean team have been sold out.
Nevertheless, there is still a long line of people trying to buy tickets, prompting the North Koreans to ask the JFA to sell more away seats.
North Korea participated in the second round of Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, playing South Korea and others, 카지노사이트 but withdrew in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The men’s national soccer team returned to the international stage at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, where the men’s age-group team competed.
North Korean supporters filled the 3,000 seats allotted for the final women’s soccer qualifying match for the Paris Olympics at the same Tokyo National Stadium on March 28, and cheered enthusiastically.
North Korea has decided to bolster its team for the match on June 21 with a “student cheering squad” composed of students attending Korean schools in Japan. The student cheerleaders practice cheering at their respective schools.
The North Korean team arrived at Haneda Airport in Japan a day before the showdown. Thirty-five members of the team, including players and staff, entered the airport in suits with pink ties and waved artificial flags to greet the welcoming crowds.
Haneda Airport, meanwhile, has set up special corridors to prevent contact with the public, temporarily closed restrooms and smoking areas, and increased security by deploying more than 50 staff, including security guards wearing “special alert” armbands.
North Korean national team striker Han Kwang-sung, who has played for Italian Serie A clubs AC Perugia and Juventus, told Japanese media outlet ANN that he was confident about the match, briefly answering “yes” when asked if he was “confident” before adding “yes, I’m confident” when asked if he was “well prepared.
The two teams drawn in Group B of the second Asian qualifying round for the FIFA World Cup North America 2026 will face each other home and away in the March A matches. They will play the third match of the second qualifying round at Tokyo National Stadium on March 21 before traveling to Pyongyang on March 26 for the fourth match. Japan currently leads the group with two straight wins, while North Korea is second with one win and one loss.
“It’s a game where the home team is overwhelmingly favored,” former North Korean national soccer team forward Chung Dae-se told Japanese TV’s Information Live Miyaneya, “and the best thing for Japan is to win by one goal without conceding away from home.”
It’s been 13 years since Japan has played an A-match in North Korea. In November 2011, they traveled to Pyongyang for the third qualifier for the 2014 Brazil World Cup. In front of a North Korean crowd with extreme anti-Japanese sentiment, the Japanese were demoralized and conceded a goal in the fifth minute of the second half to lose 0-1 to North Korea.
For Japan, traveling to North Korea remains a horror. “The Japanese team was detained at Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport for four hours,” says Sports Hochi. They were subjected to lengthy baggage checks, food was confiscated, cell phones and laptops were taken away, and the Japan Football Association banned the team from walking and shopping.”
“The J-League and German supporters are crazy, but the whole (North Korean) stadium is cheering for the national team. There’s a sense of unity and it’s the easiest soccer game I’ve ever played,” he said. “You can’t even hear the players’ voices over the loud cheers. Especially the defenders, whose communication is important, can make mistakes in coordination.”
“What I felt when I was in the national team is that they are good at hurting opponents, but they are also good at doing difficult things within the rules. I think it will be a very intense match, especially with East Asian rivals,” said Jeong.
“I don’t think Japan can win in the world if they demean their opponents by saying ‘Europe is great’ or ‘Asia is dirty,'” he advised.
Meanwhile, Japan’s trip to North Korea has been rocky from the start. According to a Japan Football Association official, the team’s trip to Pyongyang, which was scheduled for a site visit on May 19, has been canceled.
The Japan Football Association had organized a delegation to travel to Pyongyang to provide information to the players, including the artificial turf, after it was revealed that they would not be able to return to Japan on regular Beijing-Pyongyang flights, which reportedly resumed this month. “As a result, the Japanese team will not be able to experience or learn about the artificial turf at Kim Il-sung Stadium in advance,” added Japanese media outlet Sportsanex.
There’s more. They won’t be able to watch the game live. Japanese media outlet Sports Hochi reported that “Japan’s match against North Korea will likely not be broadcast live. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed the venue of the match at the Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang, but has informed the two countries’ soccer associations that it will cancel terrestrial and internet broadcasts due to United Nations (UN) sanctions against North Korea.”
Still, it was possible to watch the game live. “In 2011, the match against North Korea was broadcast live on TBS and NHK, and even though it was a 4 p.m. game on a weekday, it had a high viewership of 15.5 percent. The peak viewership reached 21.6 percent at the moment.”
This time, we don’t even know what’s going on. The political crisis is worse than it was 13 years ago, and even the broadcasting rights granted to the home team have become untradeable. In response, the Japan Football Association requested that the tournament be held in a third country, claiming that the safety of the players could not be guaranteed. According to Sports Hochi, this is the first time a Japan A match has not been broadcast live online since the Syria game last November. At the time, negotiations over broadcasting rights fell through.