Stopping the Irish national team conference, Korea winning the Asian gold, and Norris qualifying in Bahrain

The Irish national team's press conference was stopped early on Saturday, on the eve of its second match against Israel in the European Nations League, scheduled for Serbia, after Icelandic coach Heimir Hallgrimsson faced questions from Israeli journalists.

Ireland beat Israel 3-0 in Hungary in their first match on Tuesday, after turbulent preparations that saw members of the Irish national team vote in favor of playing the match, despite feelings of unease within its ranks due to the war in Gaza.

During that match, the Irish players put armbands on their arms and lowered their heads during the playing of the Israeli national anthem. The two captains did not shake hands before the start of the match.

With the second leg being held on Sunday in Bačka Topola, after the Irish Football Association refused to host the match on its soil for security reasons, the Irish coach’s press conference on the eve of the match raised new tensions.

A journalist asked Hallgrimsson about his opinion on the incident that occurred Wednesday on a Flydubai flight from the UAE to Israel, which the Emirati judicial authorities and Israeli officials described as a “terrorist act.”

The coach was also asked: “What do you say about the people you support?” Their ideology is based on murder,” adding: “Just this week, someone tried to kill 170 Israeli passengers, including 27 innocent children, and thousands of others.”

An Irish press official responded: “We will not receive any questions of this kind today.” We will answer questions related to football.”

Then another journalist went to the Irish coach and said: “Your players described our players as monkeys during the match...”, before an Irish Federation official immediately interrupted him, repeating: “This is absolutely not true,” while the microphone was taken from the journalist in question.

The journalist shouted: “Don’t touch me, don’t touch me,” before the Irish delegation abruptly ended the press conference.

The Israeli authorities had condemned the actions of the Irish team, and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Dublin of standing on the “wrong side of history.”

Hallgrimsson told reporters: “Overcoming this ordeal and emerging from it together as one team will be a huge victory for me.” I say this from the bottom of my heart.”

He added: “All the challenges this team went through, and all the criticism. “As soon as we remain a cohesive group after this match, that will be a major victory for me, this group, and the federation.”

He continued: “There were a lot of feelings among people in Ireland about this matter, and it is clear that this affects the players as well.”

The Icelander added: “We want to perform well, but it will always remain a challenge when the surrounding atmosphere is this noisy. “So we try to focus on the football aspect, and we have done a lot of things to help in this area.”

He pointed out, “One of the changes we have introduced in recent matches is that, before entering the field, we perform a short prayer and hang out with the players and the entire technical staff, just to calm ourselves before going on the field.”

South Korea won the gold medal in men's football at the Asian Games, beating host Japan 1-0 in Saturday's final, dispelling some of the gloom that followed its disastrous participation in the World Cup and a series of controversies that damaged the game in the country.

Ohm Ji-sung, the Welsh player for Swansea City, scored the only goal of the match with a powerful shot in the 60th minute, giving the Koreans their fourth title in a row in front of 30,000 spectators at Toyota Stadium near Nagoya.

Japan was seeking to win the gold medal for the first time since 2010, and is supervised by Go Oiwa, who will take over the leadership of the senior team after the Asian Cup next year.

Football competitions in the Asian Games are held between under-23 teams, with three over-age players allowed to participate.

South Korea experienced a miserable World Cup in North America this year, after it was eliminated from the group stage following a surprise loss to South Africa.

Coach Hong Myung-bo resigned, but his departure did not succeed in calming public anger over the disappointing participation, but rather increased existing questions about the method of his appointment.

Police raided the headquarters of the South Korean Football Association in August as part of an investigation into Hong's appointment in 2024.

The federation also apologized against accusations of providing sexual entertainment services to foreign rulers.

Ohm, who participated in the World Cup, delighted the Korean fans with a wonderful goal, as he fired a shot with his left foot against the run of play.

The victory ensured that the South Korean players were exempted from military service.

Most able-bodied South Korean men are required to perform at least 18 months of military service, but the government grants an exemption to winners of Asian Games gold or any Olympic medal.

The players of this team followed in the footsteps of the first team captain, Son Heung-min, and the Spanish Atletico Madrid playmaker, Lee Kang-in.

The South Korean squad included a number of players with European experience, and Ohm almost opened the scoring early, but his attempt went over the crossbar.

As for Japan, which fielded a team of under-21 players, most of whom were active in the domestic league, it suffered a blow when striker Uchi Nwadike was carried off the field on a stretcher midway through the first half due to a knee injury.

Although the hosts created the better chances, Aum scored the decisive goal to give South Korea the title, despite one of Japan's attempts hitting the post late in the match.

Defending champion Lando Norris, driver of McLaren, faced difficulties with the car that did not respond to him during qualifying trials for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, which was held on Saturday as part of the Formula 1 World Championship, and attributed his team’s suffering to the unique flooring of the Sepang Circuit.

Norris achieved the sixth fastest time in qualifying, six tenths of a second behind first-place finisher Max Verstappen, but he will start the race from fifth place after Red Bull driver Ishak Hajjar received a five-place drop penalty, dropping from third to eighth.

The McLaren driver, who is ranked fourth overall, did not hesitate to frankly express his opinion about his car’s performance at the Sepang Circuit.

“We're just slow,” Norris told reporters. "The car is not good enough here."

He added: “This track is very different from the other tracks we visited this year, and therefore I think you see Mercedes also suffering much more today in particular, while we find the Red Bull team faster than usual.”

He continued: “So I think the arrangement has changed a little bit, and I think we are facing a little more difficulty than we expected because of the surface of the track.”

Norris expressed his satisfaction with his final lap in qualifying, noting that he got the most out of the car.

He said: “But it is clear that we are very far from the required speed.” “My car has a problem with speed on straight tracks, and we lacked speed in general throughout the testing period.”

He added: “So, starting from fifth place is not a surprise. “We don’t expect any miracles, and it is clear that Red Bull cars have the advantage here.”

As for his teammate, Oscar Piastri, he recorded the seventh fastest time, but he will start the race alongside Norris on the third row due to Hajjar’s penalty.

“The experiments did not go exactly as we planned,” Piastri said. We're having some difficulty achieving speed here. But overall, I was fairly satisfied with things.”

He added: “It would have been good if we had achieved an extra ten seconds. But unfortunately we were not fast enough here. “This will be a race in which we can achieve a lot by following a strategy, and then hopefully we will achieve the required speed.”