“Usually when there are 30 shots in a game, it’s the USA with about 25 of them. Not today!”
It wasn’t just the ESPN commentator who was shocked.
Heather O’Reilly scored the last goal of the game, drawing world number one and two-time champions USA to a 2-2 draw in their opening match at the 2007 Women’s World Cup.
O’Reilly was not surprised by the goal. Or how fair the game was. He knew it would be difficult.
Instead, when the final whistle blew, it was the attitude of the American opponents, who saw a chance missed, rather than a point, that touched him.
“I remember North Korea looking desperate,” says O’Reilly.
“Their body language seemed to say ‘oh my gosh, we were so close to getting rid of that giant’.”
North Korea is the most isolated country in the world, a state based on the infallibility of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and the great suspicions of the outside world.
However, despite living standards lagging behind many other nations, North Korea has become one of the strongest women’s soccer nations in the world.
When they won the US championship in 2007, they were ranked fifth in the world and with a streak of three Asian titles in a decade.
Their record at the youth level is even better. In 2016, they won the U20 Women’s World Cup, defeating Spain, the United States and France in the knockout round. That same year, their under-17 team also lifted their age-grade World Cup.
“The 2007 game was challenging, very difficult,” recalls O’Reilly of his meeting with the North Korean senior team. “It was difficult to give them the ball, they were screaming, very fast.”
There was another challenge, which was unique to North Korea.
“It was a cloud of uncertainty,” says O’Reilly. “The film we had was very small, even by the standards of the times.
“Every time we played North Korea, it was always a secret.”
The mystery now is that, after the doping scandal and a four-year absence from international football, can North Korean women be strong again?
