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If there's nothing else we've learned from the folks in North Korea, it's that they're not above coming up with outlandish reasons for why things didn't go their way. After losing 2-0 to the United States in their opening match of the 2011 Women's World Cup, North Korean head coach Kwang Min Kim had a reason immediately available about what went wrong for his side.
"When we stayed in Pyongyang during training our players were hit by lightning, and more than five of them were hospitalised," said coach Kim, without naming the affected players specifically.
"Some stayed in hospital and then came to Germany later than the rest of us. The goalkeeper and the four defenders were most affected, and some midfielders as well. The physicians said the players were not capable of participating in the tournament.
"But World Cup football is the most important and significant event for a footballer, so they don't want to think about anything but football.
"The fact that they played could be called abnormal, the result of very strong will."
Hit by lightning? Wow. That's a new one. So either the North Korean players are the biggest gamers around or they have no depth on their roster. Apparently it wasn't good enough that the youngest team in the tournament frustrated one of the favorites for an entire half and generally acquitted themselves well over 90 minutes. Or...they could be making this whole thing up. No one is allowed to watch the North Korean team practice and the players aren't allowed to speak to the media so no one's available to confirm or deny the story. What is undeniable is that the Americans found a little lightning of their own in the second half and hope that it puts a charge in their run through the rest of the tournament. (H/T Dirty Tackle)
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