JOHANNESBURG – A Brazil team bursting with global football stars will open their World Cup campaign against a North Korea squad they, and pretty much everyone else, knows very little about.
While five-time champions Brazil have won more titles than any other country at football’s biggest showcase, North Korea haven’t played in the tournament in more than 40 years and the international isolation is about their only advantage ahead of today match at Ellis Park.
The unpredictability surrounding the secluded Asian nation is making Brazil wary of an upset like the one the team from the reclusive communist state pulled in 1966, when they beat Italy en route to the quarter-finals in their only previous World Cup appearance.
“I don’t know anything about them,” Brazil’s Ramires said on Sunday. “I only watched half of a warm-up match they played. We are still waiting for the Brazilian coaches to give us more information about them.”
That’s information which may be hard to find considering that the North Korea squad have been mostly secluded from public view and the media at a remote hotel in the northern outskirts of Johannesburg.
In the 1966 tournament, the North Koreans defied expectations by beating Italy 1-0 to become the first team from Asia to reach the final eight. They then lost 5-3 to Portugal despite holding an early 3-0 lead.
A repeat may be difficult in South Africa after North Korea was drawn into a tough group which also contains Ivory Coast and Portugal.
The opener might be the hardest test for the Koreans, as Brazil again arrive as one of the title favourites. Brazil have a revamped squad following their disappointing 1-0 loss to France in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Brazil and North Korea have never faced each other before.
