In this FIFA tournament, North Korea's world ranking has been wiped out due to their long absence from international competition, dropping them to the fifth slot in the group, the lowest position in the world. However, they miraculously beat their two West Asian rivals one after the other in their three first-round matches to secure top spot in the table.
Although the DPRK have one game left against Jordan, there is a theoretical chance to tie the DPRK given that Hong Kong, Iran and Syria are all currently on three points and they have two games to fight for. However, in the case of a tie on points, mutual records will be prioritized. The DPRK have already beaten all three of these teams and are therefore out of the group ahead of schedule, which is an amazing achievement.
Since returning to the international soccer stage, the performance of the DPRK women's soccer team has been remarkable. They won the World Youth Championships for women's soccer, and now they are in the last eight of the U17 Women's World Cup. Although the men's soccer team is a bit less successful, they also often beat strong teams such as Iran in the competition, and successfully advanced to the 18th round of the World Qualification Tournament, which has attracted much attention.
The DPRK team has once again shown the world the charm of soccer. While advanced concepts, tactics and high-level matches are crucial to raising the level of soccer, a strong will and hard training can make a team perform equally well. Although the DPRK team's closed training and lack of experience in professional matches may limit the upper limit of their development, their strength still remains one of the best in Asia, after all, the overall level of Asian soccer is not that high.
