Match report: Brazil VS North Korea

Hi! This is Atsushi.

Before writing my report about the Brazil vs. North Korea game, I will upload the video footage of the Japan vs. Cameroon game. (sorry for the delay).


I captured on film the Japanese fans triumphing over their victory after the whistle was blown to end the game. 


My shouts of joy were also captured on the video…..so please make sure to turn the volume down before playing it.

 

I want to film the same reactions of joy after the Japan vs. Holland game!

Let’s go back to June 15th.

The day after celebrating Japan’s victory in Bloemfontein with some drinks, we headed off for Johannesburg by car.  

During our trip, I was moved by the blue sky and distance of the horizon.

The sky was so beautiful that we couldn’t resist stopping the car to get out and take a few pictures.

It seemed like the sky was blue like Japan’s uniform color, 
to celebrate the victory of “Samurai Blue” with us.

We made the 500km journey in 5 hours driving on the highway. 
We didn’t stop at our “home”, and just continued on to Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg to watch the Brazil vs. North Korean game.

The kickoff was at 8:30pm local time, long after sunset. 
According to the official weather records, it was only 3 degrees…it was freezing cold!!!

We entered the stadium about 1 hour before the kickoff. Thirty minutes before the kickoff, we noticed some trouble at the entrance gates.  


When we went over to check, we realized something unheard of was happening.

Look at the long line of supporters waiting at the entrance gates!

How unbelievable!

 It seemed that there was a power blackout in part of the stadium, and the ticket bar-code scanners were not working. 

Because of this, many supporters with tickets couldn’t get into the stadium!!!

An angry supporter tried to climb over the gate.

The power blackout problem was fixed in about 10 minutes, so the worst-case scenario was prevented. 

Was this incident reported on the news in your country??

The large screens on one side of the stadium were kept off, 
perhaps to avoid another power blackout.

Now I’d like to show you some interesting supporters we found in the crowd.

This is a very original flag. Should it be called “Braz-Korea”?

The overall top scorer in the World Cup, Ronaldo, also came to see the game.

I found a North Korean supporter!!

… I thought he was North Korean, but when I talked to him in English, I found out that he was a Vietnamese living in South Africa.

Our seats were in the back stand, from which we could see some people dressed in the North Korean red colors next to the press seats in the main stand.

During halftime, we made my way over to the main stand to try to find some beautiful girls to photograph for our column “Beautiful Girls of the World Cup”  

After managing our way past the usual ticket check, we got through to the main stand, and what we saw were…

                                            

A group of elder men only…  ＿|￣|○

I thought, it’s too bad I didn’t find any beautiful girls, but it would be a valuable experience to take a photo with the North Korean supporters anyway. 


So I asked them one by one “Can I take a picture with you?” in English.
Unfortunately, I was turned down. (-∀-;)

Everyone said “No! No!” and shooed me away. What great defensive skills by the North Koreans!


However I didn’t give up trying, and finally I found someone who was happy to take a picture with me. 


When I asked him “Can I take a picture together?” he answered:

”OK, of course! Are you Japanese?” (in fluent Japanese!!)


I was so surprised that he answered me in fluent Japanese. After talking with him for a while, I found out that he was a North Korean resident of Japan!

He was very friendly. He said that he came to South African to cheer for Jong Tae Se (a North Korean resident of Japan who plays for a team in the Japanese professional soccer league). 

We were very happy to get a chance to meet both Brazilian and North Korean supporters;

Like always, I won’t go into details about the game. 


Jong Tae Se (nicknamed “Asian Rooney” shed tears during the playing of the national anthem before the game. 

He almost made me cry too.

He’s one of the top players in the Japanese league, and plays so hard for his team, so I hope that he can score a goal in the World Cup.


Tomorrow (June 17 ^th) I’m going to see Argentina vs. North Korea!!