The relationship between Japan and North Korea has been at freezing point for a long time. When the under-23 selections faced each other, no one expected them to go hand in glove. But what happened during and especially after the match on the grass field surprised everyone.
Foreshadowing that the post-match atmosphere would not be friendly was an incident in the 73rd minute when DPRK player Jusong Kim took a drink from one of the members of Japan’s implementation team. He handed him the bottle, but instead of thanking him, Kim took off. The head referee was also closely present at the situation and immediately awarded Kim a yellow card.
However, the cornerstone of the anger of the North Koreans was laid by the Uzbek referee Rustam Lutfullin himself. In the 80th minute, after a fight between goalkeeper Kang Juh Yok and Japanese midfielder Jun Nishikawa, he ordered a penalty kick for the country of the “rising sun”. Kashima midfielder Juta Matsumura took charge of this and safely converted.
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In the battle between Japan and North Korea
I don’t understand what these North Korean players are thinking, that they are doing this violence because they lost.🙄 pic.twitter.com/XVsG9UzR7X— Kumagon (@LiSAWILDCANDY) October 1, 2023
This created a feeling of injustice in the players from the dictator’s country, which they poured out on the referee after the match. After the final whistle, they ran around Lutfullin, started shouting at him and surrounded him. The head referee started backing away from the players, gradually walking turned into running. Only thanks to the presence of mind of the border judges and the organizing service, the situation did not escalate even more.
The coach of North Korea, Sin Yong Nam, also commented on the whole incident, but he inexplicably defended the behavior of his charges. “I admit that our players were excited, but that’s part of it, it’s football. Confrontations happen in football. I think our behavior was fine,” he said at the post-match press conference. His counterpart on the Japanese side did not want to comment on the situation. “It was exactly the match we expected. There were things that we are not satisfied with, but we can accept it,” Japanese coach Go Oiwa said through a translator.
2023-10-02 07:46:36
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