Well the decisive match is upon us. NK, the winners of the 2013 edition, and SK are tied for 6 pts, but NK edges us on goal difference, while China and Japan currently have 0. Due to the goal difference, we need a win; a draw would see NK win it. So… can we win this?
I think so. NK, like China, is a strong team; they’re high ranked in the FIFA rankings (top 10 I believe), won 3 of the last 4 Asian Games, won 3 Asian Cups in the last 14 years, etc. NK China and Japan are big reasons why we haven’t been able to qualify for the WC from 2003 until now. NK players are always a little nastier when it comes to playing us, because well they HAVE to win against us right? (Interestingly, KSD revealed that when he played NK in 2014, when the ref’s not looking the NK players verbally abused and tried to intimidate him, saying they’ll break his ankles and such… would that translate over to the women’s sides? Perhaps)
More recently, NK did beat Japan 4-2 but struggled vs. China a little more than us. Also, NK doesn’t seem to know much about squad rotation because they’ve fielded the same lineup twice in a row in the searing heat of Wuhan, and they’ll likely field the same vs. us:
Fortunately, we’ve been able to rotate a little. But we can’t harp on rotation too long right? The team with the better players wins. Unfortunately, NK has some decent players. Their #10 and captain has been one of the better players of the tournament and scored two goals. Two other players have already scored two goals as well; their #11 and #13. If you watch the highlight videos the NK players are remarkably physically strong. What else would you expect from a nation that makes its Olympic Golds off of weightlifting (lol)
Team news on our part? With YDY’s rotation going strong I really don’t know what’s going to happen, though my predictions were spot on for the Japan match. If I had to call it… I’d expect… Jung SB — Lee GM – Lee MA – Jeon GE — Cho SY – Kwon HE — Kim SY – Hwang BR – Lim SJ – Kim HR.
Prediction? 1-1 Draw and thus losing the cup. I need to keep up my pessimistic predictions because they’ve always been wrong!
Actually the women’s teams get along really well. We saw that in the Asian Cup when they had a united team(s) photo after the South won bronze and the North won gold