“Usually when there are 30 photographs within the recreation, it’s america with about 25 of ’em. Not right now!”
It wasn’t simply the ESPN commentator who was shocked.
Heather O’Reilly had scored the sport’s last objective, dragging world quantity ones and two-time champions United States to a 2-2 draw of their opening match on the 2007 Ladies’s World Cup.
O’Reilly wasn’t stunned by the scoreline although. Or how evenly-fought the sport was. She knew it could be robust.
As an alternative, as the ultimate whistle blew, it was the perspective of the US’s opponents, who noticed an opportunity missed, slightly than some extent gained, that struck her.
“I bear in mind North Korea seeming disillusioned,” says O’Reilly.
“Their physique language appeared to say ‘oh my gosh, we had been so near taking down the large’.”
North Korea is the world’s most remoted nation, a state primarily based across the infallibility of Supreme Chief Kim Jong-un and a deep suspicion of the surface world.
But, regardless of residing requirements being nicely behind most different nations, North Korea has been one of many strongest feminine soccer nations on the planet.
Once they took on america in 2007, they had been ranked fifth on this planet and amid a run of three Asian titles within the house of a decade.
Their file at youth degree is even higher. In 2016, they gained the U20 Ladies’s World Cup, defeating Spain, america and France within the knockout rounds. That very same yr, their under-17 crew additionally lifted their age-grade World Cup.
“The sport in 2007 was difficult, actually tremendous laborious,” remembers O’Reilly of her assembly with North Korea’s senior aspect. “It was laborious to get the ball off them, they had been buzzing round, very fast.”
There was one other problem although, one which was distinctive to North Korea.
“It was simply such a cloud of uncertainty,” says O’Reilly. “The movie we had on them was very restricted, even by the usual of the occasions.
“Each time we performed North Korea, it was at all times a thriller.”
The thriller now could be, after a doping controversy and a four-year absence from worldwide soccer, can North Korea’s girls be a pressure as soon as once more?
