Korean handball is once again putting proven domestic leaders at the forefront and challenging both men and women to win the Asian Games.
The Korea Handball Association entrusted the men's and women's national teams to foreign coaches for the first time in history, targeting the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics held in 2023.
However, the results were not encouraging.
The men's national team failed to advance to the semifinals for the first time in an Asian Games history at the Hangzhou Games and finished in a tie for 5th place.
It was the first time in 17 years since the 2006 Doha Games that the team failed to win a medal. He could not even participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The women's national team lost to Japan by 10 goals in the final, dashing its dream of winning the Asian Games for the third time in a row.
The Handball Association, which assessed that there was no synergy effect between Korean and European handball expected from a foreign coach, and that the existing strengths of Korean handball were missing, appointed Samcheok City Hall coach Lee Gye-cheong as the women's national team coach in 2024 and managing director Jo Young-shin as the men's national team coach in April 2025.
Coach Lee Gye-cheong led the national team to the Asian Games gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta/Palembang Games, and coach Cho Young-shin led the national team to the Asian Games gold medal at the 2010 Guangzhou Games.
The association has once again entrusted the revival of the national team to the Korean fighters who won the gold medal in the last Asian Games.
The men's national team will play in Group B against Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran and Kazakhstan. Group A consists of Qatar and Japan, who are trying to win their fourth consecutive title.
Coach Cho Young-shin told Yonhap News on the 3rd, "If we were to evaluate the winners, they would be Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, and Korea in that order. We are training in a good atmosphere with the goal of winning the gold medal. The players' confidence and determination are also extraordinary."
Coach Cho, who said he would compete against Middle Eastern players who are comparable to European players with strong defense and mental power, explained, "In the end, we have to rely on organizational skills. We will find a breakthrough through cooperative defense that also takes into account anomalous defensive situations."
The greatest strength of our national team is that there is almost no difference in skill among the 14 players on the court, excluding the goalkeeper, so the distinction between starters and non-starters is meaningless. Due to the nature of the sport where offense and defense must be switched in an instant, the players' even skills are the greatest weapon to erase any tactical gaps.
The women's national team will compete in the full league against six countries - Japan, Kazakhstan, China, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam - to regain the top spot for the first time in eight years. The final match against Japan on the 27th is the final.
Coach Lee Gye-cheong, who selected the final 16 players through warm-up matches against the two countries during the training camp in Germany and Poland, emphasized his determination ahead of the Asian Games, saying, "This is a meaningful tournament in which we must seek the throne of Asia at a time when our country's handball is in crisis."
โJapan is the fastest and most threatening team, but the condition and motivation on the day of the game are the most important,โ he predicted, adding, โOur players will play with confidence as their stamina has improved a lot,โ showing a strong will to avenge the loss in the finals of the Hangzhou tournament three years ago.
What coach Lee values โโmost is the strong โone teamโ organization and fast speed that are unique to Korean womenโs handball.
The Korean men's national team won the Asian Games six times, including five consecutive wins from the 1986 Seoul Games to the 2002 Busan Games. The women's national team won seven Asian Games, including five consecutive wins, from the 1990 Beijing Games to the 2006 Doha Games.
