Coach Park believes that the North Korean U23 team is a mysterious enigma.

North Korea has always been a mysterious country to the rest of the world, so North Korean football is unlike any other. April 25 is a military team that provides many players to the national team. Unlike other countries, North Korean players spend the entire year training at a training center, only being released to play for their clubs on weekends.

Mysterious enigma

Even the North Korean people themselves are completely unaware of information about their own team, let alone the experts and media in South Korea and other countries in the region. This is because newspapers and television rarely provide professional information about sports activities in general, and football in particular.

North Korea has always been a mysterious team. (Photo: AT)

Park's hometown is separated from Coach Ju Song-il's team by only a fence, yet the South Korean coach and his close associates like Lee Young-jin and Kim Han-yoon were unable to gather any information about their opponents. Even the supposedly well-informed South Korean media could only shake their heads in defeat at the enigmatic nature of the North Korean players.

"North Korea has always been a mysterious team. It's very difficult to find information, images, or videos of North Korean teams on the internet, as well as any leads that could provide information about teams in that country," admitted journalist Hong Jae-min, editor-in-chief of Fourfourtwo Korea.

Up until now, all Mr. Park knows is that coach Ju Song-il frequently plays with a 4-4-2 formation, relying on the stamina of his players to wear down their opponents before looking to score. In the qualifiers, they were the first team to qualify for the 2020 U.23 Asian Championship in Thailand, so they cannot be underestimated.

Entering 2020, three North Korean players were unable to participate in the U.23 Asian Championship finals due to being overage. These were center-back and captain Jong Kum-song and So Jong-hyok, and striker Kim Yu-song, all of whom contributed significantly to North Korea's top-of-group Group G qualifying performance.

The most important players that the South Korean press has listed for Coach Park are: goalkeeper Kang Ju-hyok, defender Jong Tong-chol, midfielders Kim Kuk-chol and Ri Kum-hyok, and the striker duo Pak Kwang-hun and Kim Kuk-jin.

Past achievements

Coach Ju Song-il prefers to use a 4-4-2 formation. (Photo: AP)

Regarding past performance at the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship in China, North Korea's U-23 team only managed a win against Thailand, a draw against Palestine, and a 1-3 loss to Japan, being eliminated in the group stage. In the recent Dazu Cup four-team tournament in China, coach Ju Song-il's team drew 1-1 with Lithuania, defeated host China 1-0, but suffered a crushing 0-4 defeat against Australia.

At the 2018 Asian Games, the North Korean Olympic team was seeded in Group 1. In Group F, all four teams earned 4 points, and the North Korean Olympic team defeated Saudi Arabia 3-0 in the final match to secure second place in the group (after the Iranian Olympic team advanced from the "group of death"). They surprisingly drew 1-1 with the Myanmar Olympic team, lost 0-3 to the Iranian Olympic team, but then easily won against the Saudi Arabian Olympic team.

At the club level, Quang Hai and the Hanoi FC players drew after two legs in the 2019 AFC Cup inter-regional final, watching their opponents advance to the final match due to the away goals rule. The Vietnamese national team also failed to beat North Korea in their most recent encounter, a friendly match in December 2018.

With no other option, Coach Park had to study his opponents as they faced U23 Jordan and U23 UAE. According to the schedule, U23 Vietnam would play U23 North Korea in their final match on January 16th, after matches against U23 UAE (January 10th) and U23 Jordan (January 13th). With U23 North Korea's tactics already exposed against Jordan and UAE, Coach Park could certainly analyze their game plan.