AT EVERY World Cup there is a team which emerges from left-field. In 1966 it was North Korea, appropriately enough. And next year a country which is still distinguished by its isolation from the world will return to the fold in football terms when it makes only a second ever appearance at the final stages.
If there was dancing in the streets of Pyongyang on Wednesday night it is difficult to know. But what is certain is that North Korea have qualified for the World Cup after a 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.
In a politically explosive qualif
ying section, North Korea finished just behind South Korea, scoring just seven goals in eight games in the final qualification stage but conceding only five. This proved enough to make it to South Africa, where they will re-awaken the memory of their achievements 43 years ago in England, or, more specifically, in the north-east.
North Korea will struggle to match the impact made on their first appearance at the World Cup, though, like then, they retain an element of surprise. Japanese-born Jong Tae-Se is one of the few players who plies his trade outside the isolated state's heavily guarded borders, turning out for Kawasaki Frontale in Japan's J-League.
It is notable that North Korea were not able to build on their deeds in 1966, when they reached the quarter-finals. The political and philosophical climate has not encouraged success on a global stage. Indeed, the football team was banned from travelling abroad for a period and did not compete in the qualification stages at all for the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, and so North Korea missed out when the latter tournament was co-hosted by neighbours South Korea.
They contented themselves with nearly starting a war as the competition reached its latter stages. A North Korean war ship opened fire on a South Korean Navy speed boat in the Yellow Sea. Loss of life was sustained on both sides. The 21-minute battle simply intensified North Korea's economic and diplomatic isolation.
Later that year, however, a football team was given permission to leave the country. Or, at least, part of a team was. The then seven surviving members of the side which caused such a stir in England were invited back to the scene of their greatest triumph, after their story was documented in a film The Game of Their Lives. Their first port of call could only be one place – Middlesbrough. It is here where one of football's most startling results occurred: North Korea 1 Italy 0.
Despite only 13 years having passed since the end of the Korean war, the people of Teesside took the team to their hearts. "They've never cheered Middlesbrough like this for years," bellowed BBC commentator Frank Bough at one point.
They helped roar North Korea on to the quarter-finals, with Italy famously vanquished on the way. The term giant-killers was justifiably applied. The Korean players were described as being like a team of jockeys, and had an average height of just 5ft 5in.
In 1966 Italy were at the height of their powers, and were among the favourites to win a trophy which eventually fell into Bobby Moore's hands. A bronze cast of the imprint of a boot in someone's garden still marks the spot where Pak Doo Ik, North Korea's No 7, struck a shot that truly was heard all around the world.
Ayresome Park, where locals urged the North Koreans on against the likes of Italian skipper Giacomo Bulgarelli and Gianni Rivera, is alas no more. Indeed, Bulgarelli's departure through injury in the first-half handed North Korea a huge advantage.
North Korea's winner was scored just three minutes before half-time, and they held on against ten increasingly frantic Italians. So much has the result impacted on Italian consciousness that a later reversal against South Korea, in the World Cup in 2002, was referred to as Italy's "other Korean nightmare".
A flavour of how unexpected the result had been is offered by the way the Times dismissed North Korea's chances before the tournament began.
"Unless the Koreans turn out to be jugglers, with some unexpected ploy like running with the ball cushioned in the crook of their necks, it looks as though Italy and Russia should have the run of the place," wrote the newspaper's football correspondent. In the event, North Korea qualified for the last eight, behind Russia.
Italy were eliminated at the first stage, though reached the final in Mexico four years later.
North Korea's heroics did not end there. They took a three-goal lead against Portugal in the quarter-finals at Goodison Park, urged on by 3,000 fans who had made the journey to Merseyside from the north-east. Eusebio, though, helped inspire the Portuguese comeback and they triumphed 5-3.
North Korea returned to the footballing wilderness. No-one could have imagined for just how long.
