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Goal.com Column: North Korea's An Yong Hak - Italy And 1966 Are Ancient History, Spain Will Win 2010 World Cup
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Dec 2, 2009 6:19:19 AM
With the World Cup just over
six months away and the World Cup draw taking place this Friday in Cape Town,
Goal.com is delighted to announce that North Korea international An Yong Hak
has joined our team of over 450 writers around the world as a regular columnist.
During qualification, An was an ever-present for North Korea, who reached the 1966 World Cup quarter-finalists, and was on the pitch in June as the Chollima clinched their spot in South Africa.
North Korean football is still on a high and the entire nation can’t wait for Friday’s draw. An is no exception as he explains:.
-Of course I would prefer to meet weaker teams in order to qualify for the second round but all the teams who go to the final are strong.
Therefore, we hope to face the strong teams which are hard to meet except at the World Cup.
I want to face big teams such as England, Spain and Brazil who are very strong and have many famous players as well. We will be hoping to learn many things from those games and these experiences too.
All the big teams have their strengths that we can learn from, however I hope we could learn from Spanish football. Actually, some countries such as Germany and Italy are physically big and powerful and it is hard for us to use them as an example.
On the other hand, there are many small players such as Xavi and Iniesta in Spain and these examples are much easier for us to draw lessons from.
From our point of view, it is very exciting to watch small players beat bigger players to overcome their lack of physical power.
Personally, I like Spanish football and love to watch it whenever I can. Recently, Spain has been producing very stylish football with great technique and a precise passing game. Moreover, the current record of Spain is very good too. I expect them to win the World Cup next year.
I would have loved to have played against Zinedine Zidane. He is one of my heroes but has already retired. If we had qualified for the 2006 World Cup, I could have had the chance to meet him and talked to him all by myself!!
Therefore I was so disappointed at that time. Now I don’t have any specific favorite players, however, I would like to meet top players such as Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi who I can only see on television.
Of course, Italy is a team that features in our football history. I've heard so many stories about the 1966 victory over Italy that guaranteed a spot in the quarter finals of the World Cup held in England. I have seen many DVD Documentaries about it too. However it is now ancient history and I don’t think there will be any special emotions on our part if we meet Italy.
We can’t meet South Korea in the first round but I am very happy that the two teams have qualifed.
Though North and South Korea have been in a tough situation with each other in terms of politics, I think it would be great to be united together through football. I am so impressed with the fact that two Koreas could stand on the same stage.
As for a team we would prefer not to meet, I would have to say that we would prefer not to play South Africa because they are the host of the tournament and their home support seems very noisy.
(Goal.com told An that many of our other 31 local World Cup experts had chosen North Korea as a team they would like to meet and take three points from)
It is inevitable because we have qualified for the final for the first time in 44 years and we haven’t showed any good record in international tournament since then.
However, our team-work compares well to any other team because we have trained together with more and longer training days than anybody else.
If they think it easy to defeat North Korea, that will be good for us.
An Yong Hak
During qualification, An was an ever-present for North Korea, who reached the 1966 World Cup quarter-finalists, and was on the pitch in June as the Chollima clinched their spot in South Africa.
North Korean football is still on a high and the entire nation can’t wait for Friday’s draw. An is no exception as he explains:.
-Of course I would prefer to meet weaker teams in order to qualify for the second round but all the teams who go to the final are strong.
Therefore, we hope to face the strong teams which are hard to meet except at the World Cup.
I want to face big teams such as England, Spain and Brazil who are very strong and have many famous players as well. We will be hoping to learn many things from those games and these experiences too.
All the big teams have their strengths that we can learn from, however I hope we could learn from Spanish football. Actually, some countries such as Germany and Italy are physically big and powerful and it is hard for us to use them as an example.
On the other hand, there are many small players such as Xavi and Iniesta in Spain and these examples are much easier for us to draw lessons from.
From our point of view, it is very exciting to watch small players beat bigger players to overcome their lack of physical power.
Personally, I like Spanish football and love to watch it whenever I can. Recently, Spain has been producing very stylish football with great technique and a precise passing game. Moreover, the current record of Spain is very good too. I expect them to win the World Cup next year.
I would have loved to have played against Zinedine Zidane. He is one of my heroes but has already retired. If we had qualified for the 2006 World Cup, I could have had the chance to meet him and talked to him all by myself!!
Therefore I was so disappointed at that time. Now I don’t have any specific favorite players, however, I would like to meet top players such as Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi who I can only see on television.
Of course, Italy is a team that features in our football history. I've heard so many stories about the 1966 victory over Italy that guaranteed a spot in the quarter finals of the World Cup held in England. I have seen many DVD Documentaries about it too. However it is now ancient history and I don’t think there will be any special emotions on our part if we meet Italy.
We can’t meet South Korea in the first round but I am very happy that the two teams have qualifed.
Though North and South Korea have been in a tough situation with each other in terms of politics, I think it would be great to be united together through football. I am so impressed with the fact that two Koreas could stand on the same stage.
As for a team we would prefer not to meet, I would have to say that we would prefer not to play South Africa because they are the host of the tournament and their home support seems very noisy.
(Goal.com told An that many of our other 31 local World Cup experts had chosen North Korea as a team they would like to meet and take three points from)
It is inevitable because we have qualified for the final for the first time in 44 years and we haven’t showed any good record in international tournament since then.
However, our team-work compares well to any other team because we have trained together with more and longer training days than anybody else.
If they think it easy to defeat North Korea, that will be good for us.
An Yong Hak
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|
| Sign up with bet365 for a free bet up to £200 |
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| Sign up with Paddy Power for a free bet up to £50 |
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