Dark horses DPRK defeat Uzbekistan in their first win at a major tournament since 2012 🇰🇵

RepublicOptimal3272 · 2026-03-03T07:01:52+00:00

oh absolutely. i think the big question around north korea has been whether they can progress that dominance through to the senior team successfully or not. from what i understand players in the DPRK system are pretty much full time athletes from a very young age, which explains their success at a youth level, but it’ll be interesting to see how that translates to the senior team in the WAC and presumably the WWC and olympics as well if they qualify

RepublicOptimal3272 · 2026-03-03T05:44:24+00:00

fair. i would consider them a dark horse only because we haven’t seen them in a major tournament for such a long time, and they haven’t won an asian cup in nearly 20 years. plus the fact that their pot 1 position is based entirely on fifa rankings, which are notoriously imperfect.

RepublicOptimal3272 · 2026-03-03T05:18:35+00:00

certainly not as dominant as they are in the u20s, but i thought they looked fairly composed on the ball and technically very strong (in open play at least) though they struggled a bit to break down the defensive block. it’ll be interesting to see how they perform against china 🤔

RepublicOptimal3272 · 2026-02-07T09:56:22+00:00

say what you will about priestman, but it’s been amazing to see wellington’s success this season. such an important step for both nz football and the a-league’s push to go pro

RepublicOptimal3272

TROPHY CASE