Football history is littered with inventive excuses, from Manchester United’s grey shirts at Southampton to the wrong kind of grass. But after North Korea slipped to a 2-0 defeat in their opening World Cup game against the United States their coach, Kim Kwang-min, came up with a new one – his team lost because they were struck by lightning.
Not while they were at the Rudolf-Harbig Stadium in Dresden, but almost a month ago in Pyongyang.
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“When we stayed in Pyongyang during training there was an unexpected accident so our team was not capable of playing. Our players were hit by lightning during a training match. More than five were hospitalised. The match was on 8 June.”
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