Sports | baseball
input2024-11-13 05:02:00
correction2024-11-13 00:09:42
(Sports Seoul | Taipei = Reporter Kim Dong-young) “You must catch the person you want to catch.”
The 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12 national team is about to play its first match against Chinese Taipei. This is a game that must be won at any cost. I don’t even want to imagine losing. It could lead to a ‘disaster’. It has suffered from the ‘first edition jinx’ in the past.
The national team will play the first match of the 2024 Premier 12 against Taiwan at the Taipei Dome in Taipei, Taiwan at 7:30 pm (Korean time) on the 13th. Afterwards, they will meet Cuba, Japan, and Dominica in order from the 14th to the 16th, and the final game will be against Australia on the 18th.
No team is easy. You have to be in the top 2 of your group to advance to the Tokyo round. Considering that Japan is the strongest, second place is possible if they achieve 4 wins and 1 loss. Of course, it would be best if we could even win over Japan. The first match against Taiwan is important. Losing does not mean you are eliminated, but you can be at risk of being eliminated after losing once.
It has been like that since the past. There are many cases where I have experienced the bitter taste of losing in the first game. At the 2003 Sapporo Asian Championships, they lost 4-5 to Chinese Taipei in the first game. In the end, he failed to participate in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
At the 2006 Doha Asian Games, they lost 2-4 to Taiwan in the first game. They later lost to Japan, resulting in a bronze medal. It was called the ‘Doha disaster.’ The national team was the target of ridicule for a while.
The same goes for the World Baseball Classic (WBC). In the 2013 tournament, they were defeated 0-5 by the Netherlands. The 2017 tournament was held in Gocheok and lost 1-2 to Israel. Eliminated in the first round of both competitions.
I sharpened my sword ahead of the 2023 WBC. However, they suffered a shock loss of 7-8 in the first game against Australia. He was unable to overcome this defeat and was eliminated in the first round again. I experienced the pain of early exit from three consecutive competitions.
Ahead of this Premier 12, coach Ryu Joong-il said, “We have to win over Taiwan and we have to catch Cuba. The same goes for Dominica and Australia. “Anyway, we have to win to go up,” he said, resolute.
Also, “If you look at past competitions, there are many cases where they were eliminated because they could not find the team they needed to catch. It’s the same this time too. First of all, the first match against Taiwan is important. “I will definitely win,” he emphasized.
In order to expose his strength, his selection against Taiwan was also hidden until the end. It was revealed at the end. This is Go Young-pyo (KT). Taiwan also hid it again and again until it released Lin Yu-min (21). He is a pitcher who appeared twice in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games against Korea. raining99@sportsseoul.com