South Korea’s bid for a third straight men’s gold medal in soccer at the Asian Games got off to the perfect start with a 9-0 thrashing of Kuwait on Tuesday, but coach Hwang Sun-hong is giving his players little time to enjoy it.
With a more testing group match against Thailand today, Hwang is wary of complacency creeping in after his side ran riot against Kuwait in Jinhua, China, southwest of host city Hangzhou.
“We’ll pretend this match never happened,” Hwang said after the Kuwait game, Yonhap news agency reported. “We have even more difficult matches coming up later, and we have a long and challenging path ahead of us.”
Photo: CNA
South Korea, who are looking to become the first country to win three consecutive men’s soccer titles at the Games, are unlikely to get it quite so easy for the remainder of the tournament with the likes of Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and hosts China gunning for gold.
Hwang’s side could also face North Korea in the last 16 depending on the final group placings.
“We should take some confidence from this match and forget about everything else,” Hwang said. “We have to work even harder the rest of the way. It’s nice to win big, but it could come back to haunt us later.”
Photo: CNA
South Korea’s other Group E rivals, Thailand and Bahrain, drew 1-1 on Tuesday.
Taiwan’s men’s team lost to North Korea in Pool F, with forwards Ri Jo-guk and Kim Kuk-jin scoring at Zhejiang Normal University’s East Stadium in Jinhua.
In the other Group F game at the same venue, Indonesia beat Kyrgyzstan 2-0.
Taiwan are to play Indonesia today and Kyrgyzstan on Sunday.
In Group A at the Xiaoshan Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, Myanmar beat Bangladesh 1-0, while China defeated India 5-1 at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium.
In Group B at the Linping Sports Center Stadium in the host city, Vietnam defeated Mongolia 4-2, while Saudi Arabia and Iran played out a goalless draw.
There was one game yesterday, with Japan beating Qatar 3-1 in Group D at the Xiaoshan venue.
The opening ceremony for the Games is scheduled for Saturday, but some sports began on Tuesday, including volleyball, with Taiwan’s men’s team losing their opening encounter against Pakistan at the Linping Sports Center Gymnasium.
Pakistan won their Pool D game 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-19) in 1 hour, 22 minutes. Mongolia, who lost to Pakistan on Tuesday, are the other team in the group. Taiwan face them today at the Deqing Sports Centre Gymnasium.
The Games are to take place at more than 50 venues, most of them in Hangzhou.
The centerpiece is a flower-shaped stadium with a capacity of 60,000, which is to stage the opening and closing ceremonies.
Inspired by the lotuses that bloom on the city’s West Lake each summer, the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center was completed in 2018 and has since been used mainly as a soccer stadium.
A lookalike venue nearby, dubbed the “Small Lotus,” is to host the tennis finals, while a butterfly-shaped structure combines the aquatics venue and indoor sports halls.
The Asian Games Village will be home to nearly 20,000 athletes, technical officials and journalists in a mini-city within a city.
It is spread over 113 hectares and has shops, gyms, a clinic and two new metro stations.
It is dominated by high-rise apartment blocks that are to be turned over to residential use after the Games.
Additional reporting by AFP
BASEBALL LEGEND: Sadaharu Oh, who flew against his doctor’s advice to throw the first pitch at the Taipei Dome, said he had high expectations for baseball in Taiwan Taiwan yesterday defeated South Korea 4-0 in the opening game of the Asian Baseball Championship in front of a crowd of more than 16,000 at the newly opened Taipei Dome. The team was led by a starting pitcher Hsu Ruo-hsi, who in a dominant performance recroded 10 strikeouts and allowed only two hits in seven scoreless innings on the mound. Eighteen-year-old Sun I-lei came to close out the final two innings, ensuring that Taiwan hung on to their four-run lead, after scoring three runs in the third inning and another in the fourth. The eight-day championship is to take place
NIGHT OF FIRSTS: In the first official game at the Tapei Dome on Sunday, not only did Taiwan notch a win over South Korea, they also recorded the stadium’s first hit and RBI The Philippines yesterday dominated Thailand 14-4 at the Taipei Dome in the opening game of Group B on the second day of the Asian Baseball Championship, while Palestine pipped Hong Kong 3-1 in Taichung in Group A. World No. 35 the Philippines put themselves on the board early, racking up two runs in the first inning, followed by two in the third, one each in the fourth and fifth, and three in the sixth. Thailand, ranked 43rd in the world, did not get on the board until the top of the seventh inning, when they tried to stage a comeback, putting up
TROUNCED: Taiwan beat Palestine in six innnings on day three of the Asia Baseball Championship, while it took just five innings for Japan to defeat Thailand Taiwan yesterday beat Palestine 19-0 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium on the third day of the Asian Baseball Championship. The Group A game was over in six innings after a 6:03pm start. Taiwan went on the offensive from the first inning, scoring three runs, but the real damage was done in the third inning, when they scored seven. The Palestine players are all studying or working in the US. In another duel between two unevenly matched teams, Japan thrashed Thailand 16-0 in their late Group B game at the Taipei Dome. They won in five innings thanks to the mercy rule, which states
NATIONS LEAGUE: England crushed Scotland 6-0, but their Olympic hopes were ruined when the Netherlands beat them on goal difference with a 4-0 win against Belgium Germany and the Netherlands on Tuesday booked their places at the UEFA Women’s Nations League finals , where they are also to fight for spots at next year’s Paris Games, but there was heartbreak for England whose hopes of competing in the Olympics were dashed, despite beating Scotland 6-0. Germany drew 0-0 in Wales, but secured their passage thanks to Iceland’s 1-0 win over Denmark. The Netherlands needed a 95th-minute goal from Damaris Egurrola to see them to a 4-0 win over Belgium which meant they edged England on goal difference in Group A1 after the FIFA Women’s World Cup runners-up hammered