By

Eniola Olatunji 

A 69th minute lone strike at the Cibao Stadium, Santiago on Thursday morning sank the Yankee Babes of USA before a crowd of 2,408 down the ladder  to go battle for the Bronze medal instead of the Gold  in the first semifinal of the women’s U17 world cup in the Dominican Republic.

Midfielder Un-Hyang Ro roared her only goal in the tournament to make the Yankee babes weep like a motherless child a long way from home. Ro had 3 shots at goal with no assist or card in that match.

VAR overturned Ref Alina Pesu’s decisions twice cancelling two penalty awards first to North Korea in the 6th and USA in the 83rd minutes.

USA’a Tiki-taka style did not work as the team had 60-40% ball possession indicating full domination of the game, also stringing a whopping 503-327 passes meaning USA played a fanciful game unlike the desperate shots at goals the team played against the Flamingoes of Nigeria in the quarterfinals.

North Korea had 12-5 shots at goal and USA could not get a single shot on target when North Korea had 2 and scored one. The only yellow card of the match went to Jocelyn Travers in the 47th minute and North Korea had 3-1 corner kicks in a match she had 5 tackles, a foul and 20 passes. 

The Yankee babes scaled four hurdles to get to the semifinal losing to Spain1-3; came to quell Columbia 2-0; and surprisingly fired South Korea 5-0 before forcing the Flamingos of Nigeria to bow by 2-0 in the quarterfinal. The team scored 10 goals and conceded 3.

The North Korean girls scored a handsome 12 goals and conceded only one to Mexico on the road to the semifinal. The team subdued Mexico 4-1; refused Kenya Freedom by 3-0; caged the young Three Lionesses of England 4-0 and piped Poland by a lone goal.

Both teams met thrice so far all at the world cup final levels. At the opening edition in the grand finale of 2008 on 16th November at North Habour Stadium, Auckland under Ref Silvia Reyes of Peru before a crowd of 16,162 fans it was North Korea 2 USA 1.

On 29th September 2012 in a group B clash at Bayil Stadium, Baku with 2,500 crowd in attendance under Ref Katalin Kuksar of Hungary, it was 1-1 draw and on 17th November 2018 at Sacramento Canada before a small crowd of 573 under Ref Katalin Kuksar of Hungary in a group C match, it was North Korea 3 USA 0. 

USA was not hot in this category by records as their only best was being runners up in the 2008 finals. 

North Korea in their 7th appearances were champions in 2008 and 2016; Runner-up in 2012; 4th place in 2010; quarterfinalist in 2018 and dropped at the group stage in 2014.

Tonight Thursday at midnight England will tackle Spain in the 2nd semifinal already tagged A DIFFICULT MATCH at Santo Domingo under Ref Asaka Koizumi of Japan.

USA now goes to play the 3rd place match against the Loser of the Spain/England 2nd semifinal while North Korea goes to her 4th appearance at the finals having won twice in 2008 and 2016 and lost to bag the Silver medal in 2012.

Shakirat Abidemi Moshood of Nigeria may end up bagging the Bronze Boot if Rim-Jong Choe of North Korea and Paula Comendador Prado of Spain score in their two remaining matches as all of them have 4 goals each. If none of the two contenders of Moshood scores again, she will bag the Golden boot Choe the Silver and Prador the Bronze Boot.

The 3rd place match for the Bronze Medal is scheduled for Sunday at 1930 hours before the grand finale at 2300 hours of same Sunday.