Tiago's heart bleeds for North Koreans (Protugal Soccer Midfielder concerned)

AFP ^ | 06/24/10 | Yann Bernal

[TigerLikesRooster]

Tiago's heart bleeds for North Koreans

By Yann Bernal (AFP) – 14 hours ago

MAGALIESBURG, South Africa — Portuguese midfielder Tiago said on Wednesday he felt sad for the North Korean players as they lived under a tough political regime.

The 29-year-old Atletico Madrid star scored twice in Portugal's 7-0 hammering of the North Koreans in their World Cup Group G match on Monday, but he said his thoughts were more for the players and the consequences for them back in one of the most reclusive states in the world.

The game was shown live in the country - the first match to be broadcast live in over a year.

"It is a really tough political regime, I know that, but we are footballers and we give our best in each match," said Tiago.

"I am sad for the North Korean players, because it is not easy when you concede so many goals, but we did our best to first win and if possible to score a lot of goals."

Tiago, who won the inaugural Europa League trophy last term with Atletico, also revealed that Portuguese captain Cristiano Ronaldo had made a touching gesture after the Real Madrid star had been named man of the match against the North Koreans.

"It was a really nice gesture by Cristiano Ronaldo which I had not been expecting," said Tiago, who numbers Chelsea and French side Lyon among his former clubs.

[TigerLikesRooster]

The most likely scenario I heard is that NK authorities won't touch them for a while until international attention dies down. Then they go after each player(& coaching staffs) and send them to labor camp or worse where they are to undergo what NK regime calls "Revolutionizing Education."

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[John Leland 1789]

I know what it is-—the affect of those stupid and annoying tuneless horns that ring around soccer stadiums these days, sounding on media as an electronic interference.

That’s just got to work on people’s brains in a negative way!

[allmost]

It looks like the individual players get pretty bored playing that game. :) Lay down, take a nap, think stupid thoughts...

[Hexenhammer]

hope some of them took the chance to run away from the masters while they were overseas. i don’t imagine the fate that awaits them at home is all that pleasant.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Those vuvuzelas are louder than scream of Maria Sharapova.:-)
It seems that they are effective sonic weapons.

[allmost]

I don’t imagine they have homes, or families after this. This soccer player felt so bad about he scored 2 goals to rub it in.

[tanuki]

If and when anything happens to these men, the fault lies with FIFA for letting vapid ‘sports not war’ sentiments cloud hard, cold political realities. In a sane world, any DPRK team would be automatically banned from any venue. BTW, FIFA also allowed Zimbabwe to play qualifiers-what a match-up that would have made!

[Jet Jaguar]

BTTT