Woo Seng-soon’s Korean women’s handball team was stopped by a Japanese goalkeeper. Their dream of a third straight title was dashed.
The South Korean women’s handball team, led by Swedish coach Henrik Signell, lost 19-29 to Japan in the final match of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Zhejiang Gongsang University Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China, on Friday.
South Korea’s dreams of winning their third consecutive Asian Games title and eighth overall, following the 2014-2018 edition, were dashed.
Japan, on the other hand, won gold for the first time at an Asian Games.
South Korea has been dominant in its series against Japan.
They defeated Japan in overtime in the final of the Asian Championships in Seoul last December, and they also beat Japan in the final of the Asian Qualification for the Paris Olympics in August this year.
On this day, however, the Japanese were in control from the start and never looked back. 카지노사이트
South Korea opened the scoring with a throw-in from Ryu Eun-hee, but Japan fought back and scored four unanswered points in the first seven minutes.
Korea scored their second goal of the game on another Ryu Eun-hee throw, but the Japanese were quicker to pull away.
In the 8th, 18th, and 10th minutes of the first half, Korea was only able to add one more goal, and the pressure grew as Japan reached a nine-point advantage.
Korea’s coach Sigel called a timeout to calm his players down, but it was still Japan who found the back of the net. With three minutes left in the first half, the score was 7-14, double digits.
Korea was scoring hard, conceding easy, and most importantly, their shots through the defense were repeatedly blocked by Japan’s Atsuko Baba or hit the post, which demoralized the players.
Baba stopped 17 shots on the day, giving her a 55% save percentage.
In the second half, things didn’t change and the gap widened.
Even when Ryu Eun-hee tried to attack on her own, she couldn’t find the back of the net, and her shooting percentage dropped significantly as more balls hit the post.
Korea pushed forward with 10 minutes left in the game, but were unable to make a breakthrough as Ryu Eun-hee’s long-range effort and Lee Im-kyung’s shot went narrowly wide.
They also failed to capitalize on their one-on-one chances, failing to create a chance for a comeback.
They tried to attack with seven field players, excluding the goalkeeper, but the plan didn’t work and they had to accept the 10-point defeat.