Handball Ladies Face China in Quarters

South Korea’s Kim Cha-youn, center, shoots during an Olympic Group B handball match against Hungary in Beijing Sunday. South Korea won 33-22. / AFP-Yonhap

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

The Chinese have been the most feared opponents for South Korean Olympians, denying their gold medal bids in archery, table tennis, badminton and other sports.

Now, the Korean women's handball squad is attempting to buck the trend, planning to play the villain's role in its quarterfinal match against China Tuesday.

The Koreans, who finished second behind Russia in Group B with a 3-1-1 record, are favored against the Chinese, who have more losses than wins in this tournament and needed a win over France to squeeze into the knockout phase.

However, Korean coach Lim Young-chul isn't expecting an easy win, as the feverish home crowd has carried Chinese athletes so many times in these Games and that could be the case again on Tuesday.

Lim also feels uneasy about China being coached by former Korean star player Kang Jae-won, who knows Korea's players and their styles inside and out.

``I do expect a home-court advantage to be manifested, but each team could only do their best to win in their given situation,'' said Lim.

``Coach Kang has a deep understanding of Korean handball, but we are well studied in their style of play as well," he said. ``The crowd will definitely try to influence the outcome, but we have to keep our composure, not get too excited, and execute our plays as we do every day.''

China started its Olympic play with consecutive losses to Norway and Romania, and recovered with a win against Angola. A loss to Kazakhstan put the team in danger of elimination, but a win against France allowed it to finish third in Group A.

The Koreans have managed to look younger than their collective age of 34, displaying pace and creativeness and also an impressive work rate on both ends of the floor. The offense led by Hong Jeong-ho and Park Chung-hee is proving as effective, and goalie Oh Young-ran has been one of the best performers at her position in the tournament.

However, consistency has been an issue for the Koreans, who needed to comeback from a nine-goal deficit against the Russians to finish with a draw and conceded a loss to underdog Brazil on a last-second shot.

Korea has established itself as an international powerhouse in women's handball, claiming Olympic golds in 1988 and 1992 and a silver in Athens four years ago, after conceding a narrow overtime defeat to Denmark in the final.

However, with the team still retaining the core of the squads it sent to Sydney and Athens, skeptics questioned whether the Koreans could maintain their level of skills and pace that separated them in previous tournaments.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr

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