North Korea is facing the prospect of missing out on the Olympics this summer. Australia and South Korea also booked their places in the final qualifying round alongside resurgent Malaysia, while United Arab Emirates dashed North Korean hopes with a narrow 2-1 aggregate win.

But the biggest casualty of the night was China, who had a player sent off and a goal disallowed in Muscat before humble Oman scored three goals in extra time to run out 4-1 aggregate winners.

Information coming from the camp of the Flying Eagles has it that most of the players are not favorably disposed to attending the Korean invitational tournament.

2muchsports.com gathered from the camp that most of the players are of the opinion that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the technical crew needed to give them some time to rest in order to be able to recuperate from several months of been in camp preparing for the championship.

The Korean national football team has drawn the match against Turkey. The 0-0 draw leaves Korea's all-time record against Turkey at one win, two draws and four losses. It also means more criticism for Guus Hiddink, the former Team Korea coach who currently coaches the Turkish team, as it follows three consecutive losses for Turkey in international matches. Ji Dong-won started as a striker with Koo Ja-cheol, new captain Park Chu-young and rookie Nam Tae-hee supporting him. It was Park's first match as captain, succeeding the retired Park Ji-sung.

North Korea Striker Jong Tae-Se has said that he expects Iraq to play a little bit defensively. Striker Jong Tae-Se is eager to help his side to the next round, but he's aware that Iraq won't be pushovers and expects a difficult game.

"I've been too reserved to shoot because I thought too much about how to use teammates playing around me. But next time I will force myself to shoot and get a goal for the team. It may go loose or bounce off a defender but it'll be great if it hits the net in the end," Jong was quoted as saying by fifa.com.

Korea DPR and UAE were involved in a statement in the Asian cup recently. The Koreans withstood a barrage of UAE pressure throughout the 90 minutes. After North Korea captain Hong Yong-Jo squandered an early penalty, the UAE gradually shifted into top gear, attacking a disorganised Korean side up to the half-time break.

DPR Korea is one of the teams to be involved in the AFC U19 women's football tourney that is hosted by Vietnam. A VFF website statement said the AFC has granted Viet Nam the right to stage the tournament which will officially take place from October 6-16 next year.

Hosts Viet Nam will be joined by the top five teams from the last edition – Japan, Cameroon, DPR Korea, China and Australia.
The tournament will have a one-round league format to determine the champions.

Japan edged over North Korea in the women's football. The winner came against the run of play in a tense game of few clear-cut chances, Japan's Azusa Iwashimizu heading in unchallenged from a corner on 74 minutes.

"We've never been Asian champions before and that was our goal when we came here," said Japan coach Norio Sasaki.

"The victory was down to the players' will to win, and although we still have some shortcomings and room to improve, we will work hard and we want to be world champions. But this was a very good tournament for us."

Middlesbrough Ladies football team lost their first match in their high-profile North Korea trip. The team left last week for the four-day trip to one of the world's most secretive societies.

On Sunday, they were beaten 6-2 by North Korean women's team April 25, the Korean Central News Agency said. The visit is the latest event in a relationship which stretches back to the 1966 World Cup when the North Korea team played in Middlesbrough. The Middlesbrough team arrived in the capital Pyongyang on Saturday.

DPR Korea will play a friendly against India, it has been decided. The Indian team, which is now in Lisbon for their two-month training-cum-competition stint in Portugal in the build-up to next year's Asian Cup in Doha, will play their first match at home against Thailand on September 8.

This is four days after they play the Thai team in Bangkok in their first international friendly after the Portugal stint.

India will play against North Korea, who lost all their three group matches in the recent FIFA World Cup in South Africa, at Ambedkar Stadium on September 14.

Korea DPR easily made it to the last eight of the U-20 women's World Cup. For the junior Football Ferns there was only disappointment because they also lost by the same score against Sweden on Tuesday and will exit the competition after their last group fixture.

North Korea’s intentions were plain from the start. They wanted to tie up the victory as soon as possible and to celebrate their safe passage into the knockout rounds. After two minutes Hyon Un-Hui tested Erin Nayler with a free-kick from the right.