"When we stayed in Pyongyang during training our players were hit by lightning, and more than five of them were hospitalised," said coach Kim, without naming the affected players specifically.
"Some stayed in hospital and then came to Germany later than the rest of us. The goalkeeper and the four defenders were most affected, and some midfielders as well. The physicians said the players were not capable of participating in the tournament.
"But World Cup football is the most important and significant event for a footballer, so they don't want to think about anything but football.
"The fact that they played could be called abnormal, the result of very strong will."Hit by lightning? Wow. That's a new one. So either the North Korean players are the biggest gamers around or they have no depth on their roster. Apparently it wasn't good enough that the youngest team in the tournament frustrated one of the favorites for an entire half and generally acquitted themselves well over 90 minutes.
Or...they could be making this whole thing up. No one is allowed to watch the North Korean team practice and the players aren't allowed to speak to the media so no one's available to confirm or deny the story. What is undeniable is that the Americans found a little lightning of their own in the second half and hope that it puts a charge in their run through the rest of the tournament.
(H/T Dirty Tackle)
Please, noone believe this for a second. I feel bad for the players and coach actually. Who the hell knows what type of pressure they are under playing for a country with such a horrific dictatorship. They need a dramatic excuse for Kim Il, not for the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteOh give me a break! Hit by lightning. All of them? How long were they in the hospital why did their doctors. Let them out if they were hurt so bad? If they were hurt that bad, they would have been able to fly all the way to Germany and go through practices to get ready for the World Cup. Just because the US team wasn't supposed to do well and they were supposed to do very well doesn't mean you have to come up with wild excuses! I guess when you're living in the country under dictatorship like they are, you have to come up with whatever you can to excuse your performance and not admit that you are soundly defeated by a team that was simply better than you were on that day. To the best team goes the laurels; to the losers goes excuses.
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