North Korea training in a public gym in Johannesburg.
Just about the entire Korean American community has World Cup fever- that’s including everyone who hasn’t watched a soccer game since the last World Cup in 2006- but while hundreds of thousands of fans stayed up to watch South Korea beat Greece, few people bothered to watch the North Korean team play Brazil in their first World Cup appearance since 1966.
The Beijing office of the North Korean Sports Committee even handed out free tickets to the tournament to around 1000 Chinese fans, knowing it would be near impossible for North Korean fans to make it over to South Africa.
But even with such lackluster fan support, North Korea performed better than anyone expected, with Ji Yun Nam making a surprising goal in the second half. Brazil still came out on top, winning 2-1, but for a team that has to train in public gyms and has rented fans, the NK team is holding its own.
