"Mysterious Troop" DPR Korea will come to their best opportunity when facing Nigeria on Friday in their second Group B match of World Cup, after the top Asian team had lived up to their hype against world No. 1 the United States while Nigeria performed lackluster against Sweden.
The DPR Koreans, twice former winners of the women's soccer Asian Cup, served notice to the rest of the teams in the 2007 tournament with a fierce fought 2-2 draw on Tuesday, forcing the top-ranked U.S. just to pull through with a 69-minute equalizer from Heather O'Reilly.
Nigeria, however, failed to show the quality of five-time African champions in a scramble tie with world No. 3 Sweden, scraping 1-1 with a late goal from Cynthia Uwak
After the first round games of Group B on Tuesday, the Group B standings are wide open with all four teams on one point, with DPR Korea and the U.S. just leading with goal differential.
A victory from the Nigeria game will send the DPR Koreans temporarily on top, while a tougher encounter pits the U.S. and Sweden to start three hours earlier on Friday.
In their previous matches against Nigeria, DPR Korea won 3-0 in the 2003 World Cup on the U.S. soil where the Africans came out the biggest disappointment of the tournament's first round, losing all three matches and failing to score a single goal.
And the DPR Koreans' 1-2 defeat to Nigeria went back to their only other meet at the 1999 World Cup, also in the U.S. eight years ago, when most of the players in the current DPR Korea team were primary schoolgirls.
Contrary to the less organized Nigeria, the DPR Koreans played nice teamwork in Tuesday's first game and were not short of outstanding individual, especially when chances came on the U.S. team's defending mistakes.
The draw also boosted the confidence of the DPR Koreans, as coach Kim Kwang Min made it public that they eye on winning the tournament.
"We are starting to fire on all cylinders, and learned how to play the U.S.. Maybe next match we could play better," he said after Tuesday's game.
"Our target has never changed. That's to vie for the World Cup title," he added.
Source: Xinhua
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