[앵커]
Our national team, driven to the brink of elimination from the group stage, will meet its fateful rival, Japan, tomorrow (10th).
You must beat Japan, which is evaluated as the strongest power ever, to expect to advance to the quarterfinals.
Reporter Moon Young-gyu assists.
[리포트]
The impact of losing a game in the first game to the national team has grown enormously.
If the national team that lost to Australia loses to Japan tomorrow, it is virtually impossible to advance to the quarterfinals on its own.
Of the 5 teams in Group B, the 2nd place advances to the quarterfinals, but the Czech Republic and China are relatively weak teams. In the end, it is a fight between us, Japan and Australia.
Assuming we beat Japan first and then Japan beats Australia, the three teams mesh and the two teams with the least points conceded advance to the quarterfinals.
With the win against Japan, minimizing conceded goals also became important.
It is clear that Japan, which boasts the strongest power of all time, such as Ohtani and Darvish, is a formidable opponent, but we have no place to retreat.
Kim Gwang-hyun, who was announced as a starting pitcher, has the experience of overwhelming Japan at the Beijing Olympics, and Japan’s main hitters are left-handed hitters who are weak against lefties.
Darvish, who is a strong Japanese starter, is a major league special pitcher, but in the past, in the WBC, we scored 3 runs from the first inning and attacked.
[이강철/WBC 대표팀 감독 : “다르빗슈 선수를 오랫동안 많이 봐왔지만 좋은 투수라고 생각하고, 어떻게 던지고 어떻게 잡고 그런 것은 저희 선수들도 다 알고 머릿속에 있어서 저희도 지금 대비하고 있습니다.”]
Although he was always inferior in objective power, the miraculous match that came out in the past Korea-Japan match came from concentration that did not give up until the end.
The fateful rival Japan, who met in the brink of elimination, was destined to play another miraculous match against Korea and Japan.
This is Moon Yeong-gyu from KBS News.
Video editing: Lee Sang-cheol / Reporting graphic: Chae Sang-woo
