The Hindu : Sport / Football : Jordan takes on DPR Korea

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Thursday, Nov 09, 2006
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Jordan takes on DPR Korea

Principal Correspondent

KOLKATA: Jordan will attempt to break the domination of the established powers in the AFC Youth championship, when the four contenders for the title meet in the two semifinals on Thursday. Jordan is the only outsider among the four teams which has moved into the decisive phase of the biennial event.

Jordan emerged as the dark horse with a quarterfinal win over last year's runner-up China. Having realised its dream of qualifying for the FIFA Youth World Cup — that reserves berths for all the four semifinalists of this tournament — for the first time in its history, Jordan is aiming higher, inspired by its performance in the past two weeks.

Jordan's semifinal opponent — DPR Korea — too has ensured its passage to the semifinals with an upset win over Iraq, the champion of the 2000 edition.

Absorbing contest

The two teams have never met in the past but have a lot of talent raising the possibility of an absorbing contest in the semifinal.

The aspirations of the two Koreas appear to go beyond the semifinal stage. "We would like to meet our cousins in the final,'' said Korea Republic's coach Dong Hyun Cho. And DPR Korea manager Yong Bin Thak too agreed on this.

Though made in jest, Cho's statement seemed to belittle its semifinal opponent, Japan.

The Korean coach's confidence apparently stemmed from Korea Republic's favourable record against Japan in the tournament.

Japan has never won the tournament despite making five final appearances and had lost to the same opponent first in the 2002 finals and then in semifinals in the last edition held in Malaysia. "We have reached the first target of reaching the semifinals. We will now analyse the next objective of how to get past Korea which is one of the major teams not only in Asia but in the world,'' Japan's Technical Director Takeshi Ono said. Statistics point to the Koreans but it remains to be seen whether Japan manages to change the tide in its favour.

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