The most famous member of the North Korean soccer team from last year’s World Cup in South Africa, attacker Jeong Tae Se has revealed that he believes North Korea can go all the way to the next World Cup in Brazil after being drawn in a preliminary qualifying group with Japan, Uzbekistan and Syria.
“We will advance to the final preliminary round,” Jeong declared on his personal blog after receiving the news on July 31st.
However, he also pointed to some problems with the draw.
North Korea is 119th in the FIFA world rankings, and as such was placed in Pot 4 out of 4 for the draw, which involves the 20 best teams in Asia.
On this situation, Jeong said, “Why the Chosun team went into Pot 4 is a good question. It doesn’t mean we cannot trust the FIFA rankings, but 119th does not match our ability level.”
“Chosun is a socialist country, and cannot spend money on getting good matches. For that reason, our ranking is low,” he went on to claim.
Nevertheless, “We qualified for the finals of the 2010 South Africa World Cup, in January we went to the finals of the Asian Cup, and this time we are in the group of death. Our ranking may be low, but Japan and Uzbekistan will be very worried,” he concluded.
