Why Japan's AFC World Cup Qualifier with North Korea was cancelled: Revealed

Japan won the reverse fixture 1-0 against North Korea

The revelation that the North Koreans would not be hosting the return match against Japan the following week in Pyongyang cast a cloud over the on-field issues. Saturday, FIFA officially cancelled the match.

The exact reasons for the move were not made clear at the time (North Korea manager Sin Yong Nam purposefully sidestepped a few questions about it during the postgame news conference), but reports indicated that North Korean worries over the expansion of group A streptococcus in Japan had been the driving force.

It’s unclear why the North Koreans held off on expressing their concerns until the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) match in Tokyo, as the AFC declared on March 11 that the men’s international match—the first to be organised in Pyongyang prior to the COVID-19 outbreak—would go ahead as planned.

It appeared as though the Samurai Blue would have an easy evening when Ao Tanaka scored Ritsu Doan’s cutback in the second minute of Japan’s World Cup qualifying match against North Korea at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Thursday.

While the visitors mounted an incredible comeback and forced Hajime Moriyasu’s team to work hard for the three points, Japan eventually overcame a few scares to hang on to a 1-0 victory.

It’s also puzzling why, if they were concerned about the possible health concerns, they decided to bring their staff and players to Japan.

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However, the reports were verified right away following Thursday’s game by Japan Football Association (JFA) President Kozo Tashima, who took over the position on Saturday from Tsuneyasu Miyamoto. The AFC then announced the next day that the game had been delayed due to the incidents.

“Informed on March 20 by the DPR Korea Football Association of the need to move the match to a neutral venue due to unavoidable circumstances.”

Of course, this kind of disruption is quite uncommon at this level, but Moriyasu had stated in his squad announcement on March 14 that he believed “many unexpected things could happen” in relation to the away game. This belief was undoubtedly influenced in part by the most recent exploits of the Japan women’s squad.Nadeshiko In their pivotal last Olympic qualifying match last month, Japan was drawn to play North Korea. However, their plans were completely thrown off when, at the last minute, the away leg was shifted from Pyongyang to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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