North Korea vow to restore honour against I.Coast

North Korea’s confidence has been restored after their Portuguese humiliation and they will be trying to restore honour in their final World Cup Group G game against Ivory Coast, coach Kim Jong-Hun said on Thursday.

North Korea, playing in their first World Cup in 44 years, were put to the sword by Portugal 7-0 in Cape Town last Monday after they had taken Brazil all the way in a resilient 2-1 opening defeat.

Ivory Coast must somehow make up nine goals on Portugal at North Korea’s expense at the Mbombela Stadium here on Friday if they are to join fellow Africans Ghana in the last 16.

Coach Kim said his team were determined to avenge their embarrassing performance against Portugal and finish the tournament positively.

“We did concede a lot of goals against Portugal but we are going to fight hard with Ivory Coast and it will be a way to avenge ourselves and restore our honour and do our best in the game,” Kim told the pre-match team press conference.

“I can say that our confidence level has been restored again.”

Kim, who accepted responsibility for the Portugal rout for not employing the correct strategy, said he didn’t anticipate making major changes to his starting lineup against Ivory Coast.

“The result of the Portugal game was not that good but that does not mean it will necessitate major changes,” he said.

“We will continue to play in the same way as we have up until now and if needed I will substitute players, but we intend to play our normal game regardless of the situation.”

Kim said depending on the state of the game, North Korea will respond in attack and defence.

“I think we might go on the attack and then again we might go for defence, it depends on how the game flows,” he said.

“I will make my tactical decisions from what I see taking place on the pitch.”

Kim said he did not expect any fallout from North Korean football fans back in the secretive Communist state after the team’s wretched performance against Portugal.

“Even though we are not able to go onto the next round, my coaching staff and players have not met the expectations of my countrymen,” he said.

“But all of our people will welcome us with open arms when we get back home.”

Kim expects Ivory Coast, to be spearheaded by Chelsea star Didier Drogba, will play aggressively and try to impose themselves on the smaller north Asians.

“Ivory Coast are physically bigger than us, but our players will resist as strongly as they can and I don’t think that will affect us that much,” he said.

Kim told one questioner that he was misinformed that North Koreans could not travel freely to South Africa to support their team at the World Cup.

“I don’t think you are well informed. The fact is we can travel freely from outside our country. We can travel abroad freely. That is the free choice of each North Korean,” he said.

Kim also apologised to the journalists at the press conference that his players were not training as scheduled at the match stadium, but at another undisclosed location.