Even with the top continental ranking and players of vast international experience, Hajime Moriyasu’s Japan squad faces a journey into the unknown in back-to-back World Cup qualifiers against North Korea.
Asian qualifying resumes tomorrow with Japan hosting North Korea in Tokyo. Five days later, Japan is to play in Pyongyang in front of a potential crowd of 50,000 — almost exclusively North Korean — at the Kim Il Sung Stadium.
The Japan Football Association’s request that the match be moved from the North Korean capital to a neutral venue amid concerns over a lack of operational transparency — including visa and logistics information — was rejected by the Asian Football Confederation.
Photo: AP
“There are probably a lot of unexpected things that could happen,” said Moriyasu, the Japan coach. “We just need to be prepared.”
Japan has tallied 10 goals in its opening two matches against Myanmar and Syria in the second round of Asian qualifying. Back-to-back wins over North Korea, which lost 1-0 to Syria before responding with a 6-1 win over Myanmar, could assure it progresses to the third round as one of the top two teams in Group B.
However, Japan’s national men’s team has not played in Pyongyang since a 2011 loss to North Korea in the qualifying stages for the 2014 World Cup.
The last men’s international in Pyongyang was in 2019, when the visiting South Korea team complained about a lack of contact with the outside world and an overly physical approach from the host team.
When Japan beat North Korea at the Asian Games in October last year, players from the losing team roughed up the referee.
“I admit that our players were a little bit overexcited in the match but it is football,” North Korea coach Sin Yong Nam said at the time. “But there are confrontations in football matches ... I think our behavior is acceptable.”
Moriyasu did not select forward Junya Ito, who has been investigated by police after being accused of sexual assault in Osaka last year.
“I tried to imagine what the surrounding environment would have been like for him in Japan and I didn’t think it would be one that would allow him to live and play football in peace,” Moriyasu said. “It wasn’t just him — I didn’t think the whole team would have been able to go about their business in peace.”
Taiwan, who are bottom of Group D with no points, tomorrow play Kyrgyzstan in Kaohsiung.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS