JOHANNESBURG - Secretive N. Korea make a first return to the World Cup since 1966 on Tuesday but could hardly face a bigger challenge than five-times champions Brazil. Hoping to recapture the form that famously took them to the quarter-finals in England back then, the ultra-defensive North Koreans have been training together for four months on a tour across three continents from Sri Lanka to Venezuela. As with most aspects of their hermetic communist-run nation, mystery surrounds the tournament's lowest-ranked team. The North Koreans do, however, have a reputation for fitness, speed on the break and defense at all costs. That could be a worry for Brazil, who have developed solidity but lost some flair under coach Dunga, and even at home failed to breach the defensive walls of lowly Venezuela, Colombia and Bolivia in World Cup qualifiers. "Nobody talks about them but they play good football," said Ivory Coast manager Sven-Goran Eriksson of North Korea. Ivory Coast are in the same Group G and hope captain and inspirational striker Didier Drogba will declare himself fit to take on Portugal and their wing wizard Cristiano Ronaldo in another match on Tuesday. Drogba has a fractured forearm and may wear a cast. North Korea are not the only underdogs hoping for a shock. New Zealand and Slovakia face off in the opening game, both dreaming of becoming the World Cup's surprise package. Better known as a rugby nation, New Zealand's All Whites are hoping to do better than their only previous appearance at a World Cup when they lost all their group games in 1982. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" said coach and former All Whites defender Ricki Herbert, remembering how he swapped shirts with Brazil's Socrates after a 4-0 drubbing. Playing their first World Cup as an independent nation, Slovakia's coach Vladimir Weiss also has past experience in the tournament. He was part of the Czechoslovakia team that reached the quarter-finals in Italy in 1990.
