Women’s handball team beats Brazil to make it to semifinals

The South Korean women’s handball team defeated Brazil 26-24 Thursday and advanced to the semifinals.
At a postgame press conference, Brazilian goalkeeper Darly De Paula said, “Korea is considered as one of the best teams in the world. They have a long tradition in handball and in order to face them we had to make no mistakes. Unfortunately, we made a lot of mistakes today.”
It started out as an easy game for Korea, who led by as many as 11 goals at the 44-minute mark. Fifty minutes into the game, however, Brazil came on strong offensively, closing the gap to 23-19. Korea held off the charge, though.
Top scorer Lee Sang-eun scored seven goals on eight attempts. Woo Sun-hee added six goals.
Korea will meet France in the semifinals. The bronze medal match will be held today, and the gold medal match will be held on Sunday.
The men’s handball team faced Greece last night in the battle for fifth to eighth place and lost 24-29.
At a postgame press conference, Lee Tea-young, who plays left wing for Korea, said, “We had many injuries and the game wasn’t easy.
“Greece has good technique and has become a better team. They deserved their victory. We achieved our goal, which was qualification for the second round.”
The Koreans face Spain tomorrow in a match that will determine seventh and eighth place.
The Korean men’s handball team had come into the Olympics hungry for a medal. They won the silver at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and the gold at the 1998 and 2002 Asian Games.
But in Athens, the team was knocked out of medal contention when Korea lost to Hungary 25-30 in the quarterfinals.

by Joe Yong-hee