FIFA U-17 World Cup 2015: South Africa 1-1 DPR Korea

After conceding to Russia just three minutes into their Group E opener the 2014 AFC U-16 Championship winners once again found themselves trailing early on when Thendo Mukumela successfully converted a tenth-minute penalty, which was given after Luvuuo Mkatshana was brought down in the area by Ri Kuk-hyon.

DPR Korea, who were reduced to ten men after Ri had been shown a straight red for denying the South Africans a goal-scoring opportunity, were on level terms just seven minutes later when Ukrainian referee Yevhen Aranovskiy awarded a spot-kick for the second time after Katlego Mohamme had fouled Han Kwang-song as he surged into the South African box.

Kim Wi-song held his nerve to confidently sweep home the North Koreans’ first goal of the finals and despite their numerical disadvantage had a number of chances to add to that tally with Cho Song-hyok and then Han missing opportunities for the East Asians. 

DPR Korea coach Yon Kwang-mu was left ruing the fact that despite his side having to play for the majority of the match with ten men his team had enough chances to take all three points and put them in a stronger position going into the final round of group stage fixtures.

"Today was a very important game for the team but unfortunately, in the first half, only a few minutes from the start, we lost a player to the red card,” reflected Yon in the post-match press conference. 

“We had to play with ten players but we did the best with those left. After that, we had many chances to score but we could not finish these. In the last game, we have to do better than this match.”

The curtain comes down on DPR Korea’s Group E campaign on Sunday when they head to Puerto Montt to face Costa Rica, with the Asian champions needing nothing less than a victory to have any chance of progress to the knockout phase.

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