North Korea

I do not see it.

Trinidad and Tobago gained support at the last World Cup through a number of factors. They were likable, it was their first World Cup, they had recognisable players in foreign leagues and one of their group opponents was England. The same cannot be said of North Korea. They are not likable, it is not their first World Cup, their players are generally unknown and while Portugal is a group opponent I do not think they are disliked enough for it to be a factor.

New Zealand and some of the weaker European nations are far more likely to gain support from neutral fans. If not them then one of the weaker South American nations.

 

I will a little.
I do not like DPRK at all, but I see it as a possible opportunity to humanize them a little and maybe expose them to the rest of the world?
Chong Tese also helps to soften the political issues a lot. ie: don't hate the people just cuz their overlords are a disgrace to humanity.

I'm less likely to root for NZ just because of these message boards. There's a lot of bias towards them that seems to stem largely because people "identify" with English-speaking white people. Maybe that's just my perception, but my detectors sensed a lot of undercurrent prejudice towards Bahrain in those threads (which is saying something because I despise Bahrains football team... they are the epitome of time-wasting foul-interupting pumped-in-annoying-sounds flashing-lazers-in-opponents-eyes 12 players in their own box antifootball), and Qatar (who I also snicker at because of The Chairman and their hiring of foreign players while simultaneously having a closed citizenship process) in the WC2018/2022 thread.

I don't think anybody expects DPRK to make an impression at the WC, but I think people are dismissing them too easily having never seen them or knowing anything about them.
Before they were drawn into GoD I had them down for 2 points.

 

Boy I can't tell you're Scottish


North Korea will not get a lot of support for several reasons- but the main one being the whole political issue. North Korea has a very bad reputation around the world at the moment, and for better or for worse I'm sure a lot of people will support against thier football team because of this.

 

It was part of the reasoning a minority of Scots gave and the same can be said for other fans both in the rest of the UK and abroad. Quite a few fans I spoke to at the World Cup itself also agreed. Whether you chose to accept it or not certain teams are disliked and it factors into who neutral fans chose to support. I hope your use of the smilie makes you feel a tad better about the situation.

 

I will, since my ancestral roots are in the North, and both sets of my Grandparents were born in North Korea. Although I probably won't buy a Nork flag and celebrate on the streets if they !!! win a game.

 

I think they're more likely to be perceived as bunkering. Though I wouldn't call their tactics antifootball like, say, Scotland or Bahrain.
Maybe more like Italy (with far less quality of course.)

 

Politics i dont like at a world cup but it is creeping through. North Korea have a mountain to face yes. Brazil, Portugal and Ivory coast is proberly the worst group possible for them. But we have seen miracles and if they can really have a go at these teams then who knows what will happen.
The North Koreans will be proberly the weakest side at the world cup next summer.

 

If they beat Brazil, then Brazil will be out simple as that.
I too will buy a North Korean flag and celebrate on the streets.

 

Well I'll admit it... as much as I hate their politics, I was actually kind of secretly rooting for them throughout the WCQ - simply because I wanted to see the Asian 'Big 5' knocked off their comfort zone. Then again, I would have rooted for any team outside the big 5 during the qualifiers as I tend to have that whole.. root for the underdog syndrome. To me the whole politics thing shouldn't come into it as footballers are footballers, not military generals or politicians.

With that said, N.Korea will most likely struggle to make any sort of an impact @ the WC. Their main problem will be scoring goals - they didn't score any in their final 3 WC matches and I doubt they are going to have much luck in keeping them out seeing that they are up against the Kakas, Ronaldos and Drogbas of this world. If they get a point I would be really surprised. Hell considering the quality their up against, I'd buy a North Korean flag and dance on the streets if they even got a corner!

 

I will buy a North Korean flag and celebrate on the streets if they score a goal. And not a PK either.

 

I think you're flattering Scotland putting them on par with Bahrain

 

um.. back on topic.. I'm just wondering how the world cup will be broadcast/reported back home.. I mean, if they do lose heavily as expected... will that even be reported? I heard they will only show edited highlights of their games back home. Maybe North Koreans will actually think that they've won the world cup itself... you really never know over there.

 

Yes it will be hard scoring goals against in the GoD. But upfront is where they possess most of their class in Chong Tese. Japanese raised kid with extraordinary talent.

 

This is the reason I was rooting for them in the qualifiers. So many people generalize whole populations because of one bad apple and showing the world that the North Koreans have fun playing sports like the rest will be a change from the usual way they are portrayed, robots doing the dear leaders will.

 

Perhaps it's not their reality, but isn't that our reality though? What can you expect the general population to believe when we have so little information about them. Add to this the fact that they have one of the most defiant tyrants and attention seekings leaders in the world today, which not so coincidentally, happens to be the only recent information we ever hear from NK.

It's only natural for the world to see them as robots doing the dear leaders will. I really hope that isn't the case though, and that most of it is the media's overdoing.

Rumors about the group stages not even being televised sounds insane, but we'll never really know for sure.

 

I too hope it isn't the case. From all the special reports about the country I've seen in the past year or so on TV the people truly do seemed brainwashed but at the same time you can tell they're frustrated that they cannot express themselves. But it is unfair that many people think of all North Koreans as evil human beings, much like the way Muslims were in the early 200s, when there are really only a few bad apples that spoil it for everyone (Kim Jong-il).

So the questions are:
Do I cheer for North Korea so the long suffering general population can be happy even though any sort of success will be used by the dictatorship as propaganda?

Do I cheer against North Korea because any good result will be used as propaganda and pump up Kim Jong-il's ego even though, if speculations hold true, the players may be punished for "shamming the DPR"?

I watched a documentary about the '66 team and when they returned they were treated very well, some of them even had offers to play abroad but were denied by the government. But that was 40 years ago and things have changed a lot; Kim Jong-il seems less forgiving than Kim Il-sun.

 

In my eyes, they can only be called victims of a dictatorship.