Actually, there’s more of a chance of a broadcast now that the match will be held outside of North Korea. NHK & DAZN broadcast teams were reportedly scrambling to make plans after the news about Jeddah went public. I’m hopeful.
The AFC's face-saving explanation for the change (avoiding questions of player safety on an artificial pitch in -4C weather) was that the JFA had complained there were "too few flights to North Korea for its fans". One wonders how many Japanese fans were planning to travel to Pyongyang in February in the first place (assuming they could even get visas to a country with which Japan has no formal diplomatic relations), and how many of those dedicated fans could suddenly instead book flights/hotels to Jeddah with three days' notice?
Japan would not be able to play at SheBelieves Cup (and we don't know what tricks North Korea would use in April).
Problems at Bunnys? 最初はユニフォームが揃っていなくて去年の赤ジャージで撮影。数日後は笑顔の写真撮り忘れでiPhoneで撮影。今日はiPhoneで撮った写真が暗くて使えなかったともう一度撮影。。予定表も出してくれず監督コーチもおらず本当に今後どうしたらチームが良くなるのか。先行きが不安です。— 新田 寿瑞／KOTOMI NITTA (@_kotsu24) February 20, 2024 Translated from Japanese by Google At first, I didn't have a uniform, so I took a photo with last year's red jersey. I forgot to take a picture of her smiling face a few days later. Photographed with an iPhone. Today I decided to take another photo because the photo I took with my iPhone was too dark to use. . They haven't given us a schedule and we don't have a coach, so what can we really do to improve the team going forward? I'm worried about the future.
They're taking their celebrity chef with them, so I guess it's alright.. パリオリンピック出場を賭けた北朝鮮戦行って来ます。応援して下さい！#なでしこジャパン pic.twitter.com/K2T3J4TJui— 西芳照 (@dream24_nishi) February 20, 2024
Unconfirmed rumours the North Koreans have been training in Sochi on the Black Sea. From there they can fly direct to Jeddah via Istanbul. There are no Tokyo-Jeddah non-stop flights so the Nadeshiko have to go to Doha (13hrs), then on to Jeddah (2hrs 30min). The UK-based Nadeshiko can fly non-stop from Heathrow.
Probably Saki Kumagai has the worst schedule -- she travels 20.000 km, spending one night in Tokyo before turning around. I think Yui Hasegawa had the misfortune to fly to Tokyo early, so she's in the same boat I believe.
“The North Korean team seems to have quite a bit of time and is holding their training camp outside of the country while preparing for the heat. It looks like an easy place to travel to, and they seem to be acting as if the location of the event was decided early on...It is possible that the North Koreans were approached by the AFC to host the event in Saudi Arabia, and while they proceeded with their own preparations, they dared not accept the offer, delaying the official decision until the last minute while flirting with other options such as China.” -Quote from South Korean Media Sochi and Jeddah are also in the same time zone. I hope this will be my last post about this issue as no amount of complaining can solve this. But again, what a ridiculous situation. How unfair can a qualifier get. JFA should file a complaint after these games. They should sue someone if a player gets injured.
I know she is an important player but I think she should rest especially if she was forced to come from Italy to Japan and then to the Middle East again within just 2 days.
I am looking forward to watching the next episode of Team Cam where a group of Nadeshiko stand in front of a big map of Asia guessing where they are going to play. Whilst some of the other players appear on Zoom playing football in their hotel at Heathrow airport.
A good news and a bad news. The good news is that both games against North Korea will be streamed on DAZN Japan. The bad news is that both games against North Korea will be streamed on DAZN Japan.
Yeah there are not a whole lot of people who watch it, but if you want to watch the WE League you have to get DAZN. I mean it kind of makes sense, but it would be much better if it was free-to-air. I am actually curious is to know if anybody else who uses DAZN Japan has been having problems with their website. @unepommekun @Ponde_Ringu ? I have been using it since the start of the WE League and I had never had a problem until the start of this year. It just does not really work on my PC anymore. It works fine through my Playstation, so I am not that concerned, but I may have to send another angry email. Their customer service is not the best.
Some good news for a change... Look who it is! 💪🇯🇵 @Hinata_1509 #MUWomen pic.twitter.com/0rZdE6M0Qt— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) February 21, 2024
／サッカー女子 #なでしこジャパンパリオリンピック出場をかけた#北朝鮮戦 を2試合とも中継決定！＼#アジア最終予選 対北朝鮮2/24 BS(生放送) 21時59分～地上波(総合/録画) 24時30分～2/28 国立競技場地上波(総合/生放送)18 時25分～※地上波はNHKプラスでも配信https://t.co/Tq8E1WxFd0— NHKサッカー (@NHK_soccer) February 22, 2024 NHK will also broadcast the two games. The away game will be shown live on their BS channel and replayed on their main channel from 24:30 JST The home game will just be shown live on their main channel.
Talking especially to friends in Europe: do we now have an exact starting time of the Korea-Japan matches in Europe (CET)?