JOHANNESBURG—So you're North Korea. You test nukes. You take journalists and wayward hikers into custody. You blow up the occasional ship belonging to your archenemy to the south and don't give a hoot what anyone says about it.

You don't exactly play by the rules.

So when your soccer team is ranked 84th and pitted against the top-ranked team in the world, you just decide you're not going to play.

Oh, the North Koreans took the field Tuesday night, and kicked the ball around in suddenly frigid Johannesburg. They even managed to score a goal while giving up only two.

But on the whole their behavior didn't much resemble that of the 31 other nations that have played thus far.

On defense, where most teams place four players, North Korea stationed between six and eight who hung back, barely bothering to challenge the Brazilians as they walked the ball two-thirds of the way up the field. If you're not a soccer person, imagine letting an opponent in football march to the red zone on every possession before you think about tackling.

North Korea attempted shots from 45 and 50 yards. On one free kick from Brazil, they set up a 10-man wall. Typical is a five- or six-man wall. The North Korean goalkeeper punted the ball all the way down the field to Julio Cesar, the Brazilian goalkeeper.

World Cup Photos: June 15

New Zealand's Winston Reid heads to score past Slovakia's goalkeeper Jan Mucha Reuters

Midway through the second half, central defender Pak Chol Jin got taken off on a stretcher. When he reached the sideline, he stepped off the stretcher and asked the referee if he could return to the match.

The contrarian strategy almost worked. Playing the team that taught the world bicycle kicks and other offensive tricks, the North Koreans kept Brazil scoreless for nearly an hour. Then Brazil's Maicon took a perfect feed from Elano on the right wing in the 55th minute, dribbled to the end line and bent a shot off the outside of his right foot, beating Ri Myong Guk on the near side. Seventeen minutes later, Elano connected for a goal of his own off a perfect through-ball from Robinho.

"When we come across an adversary that plays very defensively, it's very difficult to come up with an attack strategy," said Dunga, the Brazilian coach, relieved to escape with a win.

Even if nobody else does, the North Koreans know who they are. Coach Kim Jong Hun promised a defensive effort, and his players delivered just that, flinging their bodies across the field in front of rockets from the Brazilians, resisting the temptation to try hard to score and leave themselves open to Brazil's lethally fast counter-attack. Midfielder Mun In Guk could often be seen waving his players back from the midfield line.

"For the first half, I think our players really carried out our plan," Mr. Kim said. "Our team defended very strongly, nevertheless we were trying to find a goal opportunity and we were able to find one goal."

A pretty one at that—a long, looping pass from midfield near the 90th minute, a headed pass onto the foot of the cutting Ji Yun Nam, who fired a laser past Mr. Cesar.

Now North Korea, like Brazil, moves on to games against the Ivory Coast and Portugal. Everyone knows how Brazil will play, a slightly muted version of its fast-passing zig-zag attack. As one might expect, North Korea remains the mystery.

"Of course I can't reveal all of the strategies," Mr. Kim said. "During the five-day period we are going to prepare our tactics and strategies and we will decide whether we are going to be more on the attack or more on the defensive."


In a World Cup of low- to no-scoring games, Portugal and Ivory Coast served up another damp squib.

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo nearly scored the goal of the tournament with a long-range shot that clipped the post. Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast had an open shot late that went wild. And that was as good as it got in a largely uneventful goalless draw in Port Elizabeth.

This wasn't what we were promised from the so-called Group of Death, a four-team pool that also includes perennial powerhouse Brazil and these two highly rated and evenly matched countries. They were a little too evenly matched as it turned out.

"There weren't many occasions to score," said Sven-Göran Eriksson, the Ivory Coast coach.

Perhaps this cagey showing spoke of the pressure both teams felt going in: From the moment this draw was made last December, it had the look of a decider.

With Brazil almost certain to reach the knockout rounds, the other remaining qualifying place has long looked like a fight between these two teams. As it turned out, both seemed weighed down by the fear of losing. As has become customary at this tournament, the two sides both opted to play just a single striker, and most of the action was compressed into the middle of the field.

Mr. Ronaldo did draw gasps with an outrageous piece of individual skill in the 11th minute. And his counterpart, Mr. Drogba, nearly struck a decisive blow in the 66th minute. But no goal for either.

Such an outcome was entirely in keeping with the narrative of a World Cup in which the "beautiful game" has looked rather ordinary.

Even the drone of the vuvuzelas is beginning to sound a bit disheartened.

—Jonathan Clegg