S. Korean men, women win 1st games in field hockey
Players from South Korea and Bangladesh line up before their Pool A match at Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Gifu, Japan, Friday. Courtesy of Korea Hockey Association
NAGOYA — The South Korean men's and women's field hockey teams both won their opening contests of the Asian Games on Friday.
The men's team defeated Bangladesh 5-0 to begin Pool A play at Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Gifu, some 30 kilometers north of the main host city of Nagoya. Sim Jae-won, Lee Gang-san, Oh Se-yong, Bae Soung-min and Yang Ji-hun scored a goal apiece.
South Korea scored three times in the second quarter before adding a goal in each of the next two quarters.
"We saw Bangladesh as a dark horse. We wanted to lock things down defensively in the first quarter," South Korea head coach Min Tae-seok said. "And then we wanted to be more aggressive in the second quarter. And our players scored those goals after making their adjustments to the venue."
Before the men's game, the North Korean anthem was played instead of South Korea's. The match organizers then played Bangladesh's anthem before playing the South Korean anthem later. But with the start of the match being delayed, the referee ordered players on both sides to shake hands with each other and to start getting ready to play before the anthem ended.
"I can't believe something like this happened at an international competition," Min said.
The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee said it lodged an official complaint with the organizing committee over the anthem mix-up, demanding an official apology and prevention of a recurrence.
Later at the same venue, the women's team got past Chinese Taipei 3-1 in Pool A, thanks to two goals by Park Seung-ae and another by An Su-jin.
At the previous Asian Games in 2023, South Korea reached the podium in both events -- bronze for men and silver for women.
Both the men's and the women's tournaments will follow the same format.
In each event, 12 teams have been split into two groups of six. The top two teams from each group will progress to the semifinals.
The South Korean men will next play Indonesia at 11 a.m. Tuesday, while the women will be up against Kazakhstan at 9 a.m. Monday.