‘We’re right here solely to play soccer’

The coach of the primary North Korean sports activities workforce to go to the South in eight years batted away questions Tuesday in regards to the prospect of South Koreans cheering his aspect, saying: “We’re right here solely to play soccer.”

Naegohyang Ladies’s FC will face South Korea’s Suwon FC Ladies within the semi-finals of the Asian Ladies’s Champions League on Wednesday.

Curiosity within the uncommon North-South conflict has been intense and seven,087 basic admission tickets offered out inside hours of occurring sale final week.
Naegohyang’s arrival at South Korea’s Incheon Worldwide Airport on Sunday noticed gamers and officers surrounded by throngs of reporters and supporters holding welcome indicators.

Round 3,000 spectators from civic teams backed by Seoul’s unification ministry are anticipated to cheer each groups, however there shall be no official away supporters as a result of North Koreans are usually not allowed into the South.

Naegohyang head coach Ri Yu Il disregarded questions on what he thought in regards to the prospect of South Koreans cheering his aspect throughout Tuesday’s pre-match press convention.

“I am undecided whether or not comparable questions will proceed to return up,” he mentioned. “However we’re right here solely to play soccer.

“Merely put, we’ll focus solely on every match,” he added. “Subsequently, the problem of the supporters is just not one thing I, as a coach, or our gamers must concern ourselves with.

“We are going to focus solely on the sport.”
 
No emotion

The Seoul authorities has supplied US$200,000 to help South Korean civic teams planning to cheer each groups on the match.

In response to native media, civic teams have been discussing cheering pointers with the authorities, as a result of waving North Korean nationwide flags in public is prohibited underneath the nationwide safety regulation.

In previous such occasions held within the South, civic teams as a substitute waved flags depicting the Korean Peninsula.

Each Ri and the workforce captain, Kim Kyong Yong, sat via the press convention with out exhibiting any emotion, and their solutions have been translated by a North Korean interpreter.

Kim mentioned: “We are going to give our all to repay the belief and expectations of our folks and our dad and mom and households.”
The winner of the semi-final will play both Australia’s Melbourne Metropolis or Japan’s Tokyo Verdy Beleza, additionally in Suwon, in Saturday’s ultimate.

The 2 groups clashed within the group stage earlier within the competitors, with Naegohyang successful 3-0, however the coach mentioned that will depend for little on Wednesday.

“Simply because they performed within the group stage, it might be completely incorrect to say that one workforce is stronger or weaker than one other primarily based solely on these outcomes,” Ri mentioned.

“For us, our focus is just on doing our greatest to realize a very good lead to tomorrow’s match.”

Ladies’s soccer is certainly one of North Korea’s strongest worldwide sports activities, with  their nationwide sides frequently competing on the highest ranges in Asia and globally.

North Korea rank eleventh within the FIFA Ladies’s World Rating, far above their males’s workforce, which is ranked 118th.

The go to comes with Pyongyang being unresponsive to Seoul’s repeated unconditional dialogue proposals underneath President Lee Jae Myung, who has taken a a lot softer stance than his conservative predecessor.

The 2 Koreas are technically at warfare because the 1950-53 Korean battle resulted in a truce, not a peace treaty.