North Korea beat Japan to win women’s soccer gold at Asiad

Reuters: North Korea won the Asian Games women’s soccer gold medal for a third time on Wednesday, beating 2011 World Cup winners Japan 3-1 at Munhak Stadium.
The Koreans took a 2-0 lead on goals from Kim Yun Mi and skipper Ra Un Sim before Japan hit back through captain Aya Miyama. Substitute Ho Un Byol scored a brave diving header in the closing minutes to seal the win.

North Korea’s Kim Yun Mi (12) reacts after scoring a goal against Japan in their women’s final soccer match during the 17th Asian Games in Incheon 1 October – Reuters

It was the third straight Asian Games final played between the two sides after Japan won four years ago in Guangzhou and the Koreans won in Doha in 2006.
Despite the ongoing political tension in Northeast Asia, the game was played in a festival-like atmosphere with South Korean spectators wearing T-shirts calling for harmony on the Korean peninsula and chanting for unification.
Late in the second half, however, plain-clothed security personnel swooped on a man who unfurled a North Korean flag and hung it on barriers directly behind the Japanese goal.
Security yanked the flag down and whisked the man away for questioning.
A Reuters witness heard the man, who looked to be in his 50s, tell security in Korean: “I didn’t know this was against the law”.
When asked his nationality, he handed over a burgundy-coloured passport. Standard South Korean passports are green.
The man was photographed before being led away. The country’s strict National Security Act prohibits South Koreans from carrying the North’s flag and the government issued a stern warning ahead of the Games that it was banned.
Asiad organisers also took down North Korean flags in Incheon ahead of the Games following complaints from conservative South Korean groups.
North Korea will have the chance to win gold in the men’s event on Thursday when they play hosts South Korea.

Women’s World Cup to be played on turf, FIFA insists Reuters: Next year’s women’s World Cup in Canada will be played on artificial turf despite threats of legal action from several top international players, an unmoved FIFA executive said after touring one of the host venues on Tuesday. With players threatening a lawsuit if forced to play on artificial pitches, resolute FIFA officials were unfazed as they began site inspections of the six Canadian venues that will host the June 6-July 5 competition. “No plans to change that decision,” a stone-faced Tatjana Haenni, FIFA’s deputy director of the competitions and head of women’s competitions, told reporters after inspecting the Ottawa stadium. “I can’t answer if that is fair but that is the way it is going to be. “It is according to the competition regulations, it is according to laws of the game so all matches will be on artificial turf.” While FIFA remains adamant the tournament will proceed as planned a group of players is equally determined that the event will be staged on grass, claiming FIFA is discriminating against women by having the tournament on artificial turf. The 2014 FIFA World Cup for men in Brazil was played on grass and there are no plans to shift future men’s tournaments to artificial turf. Some professional football leagues and some FIFA World Cup age-group matches are played on artificial turf. The FIFA delegation toured a 24,000-seat stadium that is home to the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks, walking out onto the field to get a close look at the playing surface while the team practised. Even with plenty of construction going on around the stadium Haenni was full of praise for the venue but refused to comment on the turf. “It is the first time we have come and seen it almost finished and from our first impression it really looks beautiful. It is very spacious, very modern, great facilities for players, guests, spectators,” said Haenni. When asked specifically about the playing surface: “I think I just answered that question,” Haenni snapped. While FIFA shows no sign of backing down the governing body did confirm it has brought in an independent consultant to make sure the artificial turf is up to standards.

 

Asiad awaits inter-Korean soccer clash Reuters: Few football fixtures are painted with as much political intrigue as a clash between North and South Korea, and Thursday’s Asian Games final promises to stoke passions on both sides of the world’s most heavily militarised border. The last time the two sides met in the Asiad final was in 1978 in Bangkok, where neither team could find the net and gold medals were handed out to both sets of players. A post-game report in the Bangkok Post read: “Both sides were relieved to see the gruelling game end, and the atmosphere could not have been more friendly as the 22 players embraced each other.” Given the current frosty state of inter-Korean relations, another show of cross-border conviviality is unlikely whatever the score at Munhak Stadium.