Sports Briefs

FOOTBALL

Men’s Olympic football team preps for Games in Salvador

The men’s Olympics football team has arrived on Saturday in Salvador, Brazil, where its first game against Fiji will take place on August 5.

The team and its skipper, Shin Tae-yong, left Korea on July 18 to undergo final preparations before the tournament in Brazil and have stayed in Sao Paulo since then for training and pickup games against Iraq and Sweden.

After coming out of a 1-0 loss against Iraq, during which an injury scare almost destroyed the team’s morale, Korea defeated Sweden 3-2 in its next prep match on Friday.

During the final tune-up game against Sweden at Pacaembu Stadium in Sao Paulo, Korea’s midfielder Moon Chang-jin tallied two goals to lift the Korean side over the Swedish.

After arriving at Salvador, the team took a day off on Sunday before starting the final stage of training. Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur, one of the wild cards along with Suk Hyun-jun of the FC Porto and Jang Hyun-soo of the Guangzhou R&F, will join the team in Brazil on Monday.

The Olympics football team is assigned to Group C in the preliminary stage along with Fiji, Germany and Mexico. The team must finish second or better in the preliminary stage to advance to the knockout stage.

BASEBALL

Kim Hyun-soo replaces Adam Jones for the Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles’ Korean outfielder Kim Hyun-soo replaced Adam Jones at the bottom of the eighth inning during the Orioles’ crushing 1-9 defeat against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.

With southpaw J.A. Happ starting the game for the Bluejays, Buck Showalter, the manager of the Orioles, excluded Kim from the starting roster and placed Nolan Reimold in his stead. Although Kim has been on a hitting streak for four straight days since he came out of the disabled list earlier in the week, Showalter decided to not play him against a left-handed pitcher. Showalter has been adamant about not playing Kim against a left-hander.

Although Kim stepped into the game in the eighth inning and played out in left field, he didn’t have much to show for it and was unable to bat even in the ninth inning due to the rotation complication.

The Orioles took an early lead when it scored the first run of the game in the second inning. However, they were struck out 11 times during the first seven innings while Happ was on the mound and conceded seven runs in the fifth inning alone. After its loss, the Orioles fell into a five-game slide and came down a step in American League East standings to second place after the Bluejays.

Elsewhere in the majors, Kang Jung-ho of the Pittsburgh Pirates went 1-for-4 with a run batted in on Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers at the Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Kang’s single came in the fourth inning and brought home Andrew McCutchen. The Pirates lost to the Brewers 3-5.

By Choi Hyung-jo