North Korea Football coach got off lightly

The World Cup is over, but the news hasn’t, apparently.  If this report has any truth behind it, it’s not entirely unexpected.  It is not surprising that North Korea failed to advance to the second stage of the World Cup, nor is it shocking to discover that the Dear Leader has punished the North Korean Football team for such failure.

Telegraph in the UK has reported that the entire team was subjected to a six hours long “grand debate” in early July for failing their “ideological struggle”.  The coach of the North Korean football team, Kim Jong-hun, was duly punished.  The sentence is hard labour and expulsion from the only legal political party in North Korea, the Workers’ Party of Korea.  The rest of the team also got a belting.  The only two that escaped the face full of spit flew off the Japan straight after their World Cup matches, presumable they would be claiming asylum by now.

By North’s standard, the coach got off lightly, and by lightly, I mean not being dead.  Maybe it has something to do with the coach sharing two-thirds of the Dear Leader’s great awesome name.

Me thinks it has everything to do with the live broadcast of their disastrous second group match.  If you were Dear Leader, you would be mad too.  He was probably thinking, “hmm, scoring a goal against a five times World Champion isn’t so bad.  How bad could it be playing against a country whose best achievement is taking over Macao?”

The North Korean television station should have suffered “technical difficulties” after the second Portugal goal, then replayed their goal against Brazil and called it day.  80% of the population most probably doesn’t give a rat’s arse about the World Cup anyway.

Conclusions from World Cup 2010

World Cup is over.  Spain finally prevailed in extra time (albeit a brutal match at that), and the beautiful game will move to Brazil in four years time.  There are some conclusions I can draw from this World Cup.

Video ref a must

The technology is here, why not use it?  Not only will it save embarrassing moments, it should also assist the referee in making decisions about fouls.  The only thing is that fouls are such a subjective thing.  Did a player foul intentionally? Or was it an unavoidable contact? Sometimes, not even watching the replay will help.  But at least it should clear some (if not all) players of accidental contacts, and penalise those for the deliberate act of on field terrorism.

Not losing does not = Win (but in this case, we’ll make an exception)

Just take a look at New Zealand.  It is the only team that went undefeated in this entire competition.  Even eventual champion Spain lost to Switzerland in its opening match.  Unfortunately for the Kiwis, they just couldn’t score one extra goal to progress to the second round.  Not losing is great, but not winning is not going to get you far.  Nonetheless, for a nation of NZ’s size, and for a sport that does not match the popularity of rugby or cricket, they have done well, so consider that a win.  On the other side of the coin…

European Top teams no longer

The powerhouse of Europe is no longer such a force to be reckoned with.  Just take a look at last World Cup’s finalist.  Not only did Italy and France not qualify for the second round.  Both teams finished dead last in their respective group.  DEAD LAST! And England’s motivation (or lack thereof) is their biggest downfall, not the goal that should have been.  Rooney and co. earn big money from Club football, but their display at the World Cup was pathetic to say the least. Having said that…

Europe is still the centre of the (football) World

For the second time running, the World Cup stays in Europe.  3 of the last 4 contenders are European teams, so there are still some top teams in Europe.  Both of the finalist never won a World Cup, and I could imagine that guy at the newspaper agency already has a “[insert country name] won its first World Cup” template, ready to go.

Asian football is improving

Two of the regular Asian visitors in recent World Cup finals, Japan and South Korea, show that they can actually progress.  I still remember these teams were just there to make up the numbers a long time ago.  But since South Korea’s amazing run two World Cups ago (and let’s not forget Japan went through to the second round for the first time in the same tournament), they have steadily improved, especially the Koreans.  They scored in every one of their matches in this World Cup.  The Japanese were unlucky in the PSO against Paraguay, but they did hold the other team scoreless until the bitter end, unlike the other Asian team that Portugal slaughtered.  I could only imagine what sort of treatment torture awaited the North Koreans back home.

South Africa puts on a good show

The host nation has put on a great show even with all the negative media attention that they received.  I have no intention of travelling there myself, but for all those who did, it looks like they enjoyed themselves tremendously.  So well done to you, South Africa.

FIFA once again under the camera

So a disallowed English goal raised yet another video referee debate (of sort).  Sepp Blatter, the head of FIFA, had once said that errors should be left in soccer as it was part of the game.  How could a clear unfair decision be allowed?

Granted, Germany was a batter side playing against England, but a clear error should be corrected.  Some high profile sports like tennis and cricket use technology to assist the umpires to make the correct call.  Soccer should do the same.  After all, the World Cup is the most watched sport on the planet.  I was surprised there wasn’t any English riot afterwards… okay… maybe I was wrong.

Just on the referee, after clicking on about 12 links, I found that the UEFA has tried out the goal referee.  It seems like a good idea.  When are we going to see them in action in professional games?

Both Finalists of the last World Cup finished LAST in the first round of 2010 World Cup

France, who came second in 2006 World Cup, was never really any good this year.  Losing to Mexico was just too much for some players.  The coach is under siege, the whole nation was in uproar.  See what happens when you are losing? You complain and whine and blame everything.  Can’t be helped, really, since they finished last in their group.

Italy, the winner of 2006 World Cup, suffered the same fate! I can’t tell you how happy I am about that.  I never liked the Italy soccer team.  They are a bunch of cheaters.  They cheated their way past the second round against Australia into being the Champion in 2006.  They’re a bunch of whiners against the much weaker team of South Koreans back in 2002.  So much so that they sacked one of the Korean players who were playing for an Italian club back then.  Bunch of losers.  You deserve the last place.

The 2010 World Cup is breaking quite a few records:

- The first time the host nation did not make it to the second round
- The first time both finalists in the last World Cup not to make it to the second round

It’s quite amusing.  More exciting football is on the way, I’d say.  And talking about records, how’s this for a record.