The South Korean men's handball team's trip to Paris was cut short. The team suffered an 11-point defeat to Japan in the regional qualifier.

The South Korean men's handball team lost 23-34 to Japan in the semifinals of the Asian Qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday (July 27). Earlier in the day, South Korea defeated the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, India, and China in the group stage to finish second in the pool.

Prior to today's match, South Korea and Japan had a 23-2-3 head-to-head record, with South Korea leading the series by a wide margin. In their last four matches, they had also won three, drawn one and lost none. However, they suffered a shock defeat on the road to Paris. It has been seven years since Korea lost to Japan in the group stage of the 2016 Asian Men's Championship.

The loss ended the men's handball team's dream of qualifying for the Olympic Games for the first time in 12 years. After reaching the main draw in London 2012, the team failed to qualify for three consecutive Games in Rio 2016, Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024. Failure to reach the semifinals at the Hangzhou Asian Games also cast an ominous shadow. The women's handball team had to settle for silver after losing 19-29 to Japan in the final of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The Koreans made a series of passing mistakes early on in the first half, allowing Japan to take advantage. The score was 9-10 with 22 minutes left in the first half before Japan scored five straight goals to end the half at 9-15. In the second half, Japan scored back-to-back goals to make it 12-21 and Korea trailed by nine points. The gap widened further and the score was 23-34. 온라인카지노

Lee Hyun-sik (SK Hawks) scored a team-high seven goals and Cho Tae-hoon (Doosan) scored five, but it wasn't enough to stop Japan. Goalkeepers Kim Dong-wook (Doosan) and Lee Chang-woo (Incheon City Corporation) recorded four saves and one save, respectively, but their save percentage was only 12.9% and 12.5%.

Head coach Hollande Freitas said after the game, "Korea's shooting accuracy was poor, while Japan converted easy shots to open up a big lead. We couldn't overcome the gap in the second half. It was difficult to accurately assess our strength because our qualifying opponents were not the top Asian nations, but today we showed our problems."