KOREANS

 Football on This Day – 25th July 2012

The 2012 Olympics hadn’t officially started when the football tournament hit a serious snag in Glasgow. The womens' match at Hampden Park between North Korea and Colombia was delayed by an hour, after the North Koreans protested when a South Korean flag accompanied their team on the giant screen at the ground. 

It was the first major FIFA women's tournament to be staged within the UK, and marked the first time a team representing Great Britain took part in the women's tournament. Games were played at: The Millenium Stadium Cardiff, City of Coventry, Hampden Park, Wembley, Old Trafford, St James' Park (Newcastle) 

Twelve teams reached the football finals: GB, Sweden, France: Cameroon, South Africa, Colombia: Japan, North Korea, New Zealand, US, Canada, Brazil. The USA won Gold, Japan Silver, Canada bronze and France came 4th. Great Britain lost to Canada in the Q-F. North Korea came 3rd in their group and did not qualify for the knock-out stage.

North Korea's Male footballers created a shock in the FIFA World Cup 1966, when they qualified for the finals in England by beating Australia 6-1 and 3-1 in two ties both held in Phnom Penh. All the other legitimate African countries had withdrawn as a protest over qualification procedures. South Africa was suspended by FIFA for obvious reasons (at that time), so North Korea had a bit of a walk through!

Portugal, led by the great Eusebio, were debutants for the World Cup finals, qualifying for the first time after trying since 1934. They won their European group including Czechoslovakia, Romania and Turkey. They were then led into their qualifying group with Brazil (including Pele), Bulgaria and Hungary. They won 3 out of three, scoring 3 goals in each match and conceding 2 overall. 

In the quarter-finals Portugal met North Korea who had beaten Italy 1-0 in their group and drawn with Chile 1-1, (lost to Soviet Union 0-3). All their games were played at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough, whose locals had adopted them as diminuitive heroes.  The game was carved into history after 22 minutes Portugal with all its stars were 0-3 down.

The Middlesbrough fans were delirious with their "adopted" national team. Then, Eusebio took charge; scoring 4 including 2 pens. Half time 3-2. Final score 3-5. Crowd 51,780! Right, the Koreans score against Portugal.

Note left Portuguese centre forward, Torres, towering over the Koreans!

I remember the Korean's Quarter-final game against Portugal, played at Goodison Park on July 23rd. I was playing an U15 schools' county cricket cup final at Hove, home of Sussex CCC. News was being fed onto the pitch from fine leg. Portugal won and so did Collyers' GS, Horsham!

Later, England beat Portugal 2-1 in the semi-final on the 26th July and the rest is history.