North Korean women win rare match in South to reach final
North Korea's Naegohyang Women's FC defender Ri Myong Gum (left) vies for the ball with South Korea's Suwon FC Women forward Mileninha Barreto de Oliveira during their Women's Asian Champions League semi-final at Suwon Sports Complex (Pedro Pardo) North Korea's first sports team to visit the South in eight years reached the Asian Women's Champions League final on Wednesday as Naegohyang Women's FC beat Suwon FC Women 2-1. Naegohyang came from behind to defeat their rivals from the South amid torrential rain in Suwon, in a hard-fought semi-final played in a fair spirit without any major flashpoints. Suwon captain Ji So-yun missed a penalty with just over 10 minutes to play.
The North Koreans hugged each other and wept at the full-time whistle as the Suwon players slumped to the turf. "We believed in our team's ability," said Naegohyang's Choe Kum Ok, who scored her team's equaliser in the second half. "If all of us stay united, neither the semi-final or final will be a problem for us.
" The North Koreans will stay in the South for Saturday's final, where they will take on Japan's Tokyo Verdy Beleza at the same stadium. "Every player's role is important, but things didn't go well for us in the first half," said Choe. "Once we got into the second half, we found our rhythm and I think the game flowed much better for us.
" Interest in the rare North-South semi-final was intense, and 7,087 general admission tickets sold out within hours of going on sale last week. A woman in her 70s who gave her surname as Lee told AFP before kick-off that she lived nearby and attended the match "hoping to catch a glimpse of the North Korean players". "I'll cheer for both teams, although I'm rooting slightly more for the North since they travelled such a long way to get here," she said.
Bad weather meant half the seats in the roofless Suwon Sports Complex Stadium were empty. A large group of spectators from civic groups backed by Seoul's unification ministry were in the stadium to support both teams, although they were mostly silent. - Fast and fair - Suwon fans banged drums and chanted for their team.