When Nepal lost 19-0 to North Korea

Nepal’s U-20 women’s football team is set to face North Korea today in the AFC U-20 Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers in Bhutan a fixture that brings back memories of one of Nepal’s heaviest defeats in women’s football history.

It was 2004 when Nepal’s U-19 women’s team played against North Korea in the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship in China. Back then, qualifiers were not held, so Nepal went straight into the final round, placed in Group D alongside North Korea, Thailand, and Uzbekistan.

In their opening match, Nepal met a powerful North Korean side and suffered a crushing 19-0 defeat. The next two games also ended in heavy losses 6-1 against Thailand and 4-1 against Uzbekistan. Nepal scored just two goals in the entire tournament while conceding 29.

Former national team captain Anu Lama, who was only 16 or 17 at the time, remembers it well. “It was our first time playing at such a level. We had only one month of training before leaving for China,” she said. Women’s football was barely known in Nepal back then, and even the senior national team rarely played matches.

That 2004 squad included current coach Bhagwati Thapa, current U-20 team manager Indu Duwa, and players like Madhu Thapa, Pramila Rai, Shova Tej, and others. Santosh Baniya was the head coach, with Kalpana Piya Shrestha and Mira Chaudhary among the officials.

Anu recalls that there were hardly any women’s matches in Nepal at the time. “We had played only one school-level match before going abroad. It was a huge jump,” she said. Media coverage was also minimal, with no online portals and only a few newspapers like Gorkhapatra and Kantipur.

Fast forward to today, North Korea is still a giant in youth women’s football. They have won both the U-20 Asian Cup and the U-20 World Cup and are also past champions at U-17 level. In the ongoing qualifiers, they have beaten Saudi Arabia 15-0 and hosts Bhutan 10-0, scoring 25 goals without conceding any.

Nepal, meanwhile, has drawn 1-1 with Bhutan and narrowly beaten Saudi Arabia 1-0. North Korea tops Group A with 6 points, Nepal sits second with 4 points, and only a win today will take Nepal to the Asian Cup.

A draw or loss will mean elimination, as other second-place teams already have 6 points. Two decades after that 19-0 defeat, Nepal meets North Korea again this time with qualification hopes on the line.