DPR Korea players celebrate with the AFC U-19 Women's Championship trophy.

CHONGQING: DPR Korea clinched the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship title after defeating archrivals Japan 1-0 in the final on Tuesday.

Ra Un-sim’s goal in the 22nd minute was all that separated the two sides in a match which was aggressively contested in front of more than 5000 fans at the Chongqing Olympic Sports Centre.

Having stumbled twice so far in the semifinals (2002 and 2004) before losing to China in the final by a solitary goal in Malaysia last year, Choe Kwang-sok’s girls started the match in a determined fashion against the 2002 champions in their quest to add the Asian title to the world title they won last year after defeating China in the final in Moscow.

“The team played well and our physical fitness stood us in good stead against our strong rivals,” said an elated Choe, AFC Coach of the Year in 2006, after the match.

Ra, who was joint top scorer with Jung Hae-in of Korea Republic with four goals, was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

Japan coach Sasaki Norio paid compliments to the champions. “Today we played well at first but our rivals were better and though we changed our strategy in the second half it didn’t help,” said Norio.

Choe said the Asian title had filled his team with confidence for their title defence in next year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Chile. “I feel no pressure now and we will start training as soon as we get back to our country.”