The Korean national baseball team, which aims to win the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12 title for the first time in nine years, is facing a wall even before the opening of the championship. There is a sense of anxiety over a series of territorial disputes.메이저놀이터

The baseball team, led by head coach Ryu Joong-il (61), will start the 2024 WBSC Premier 12 schedule, starting with the first Group B match against the host country Taiwan at 7:30 p.m. on the 13th (Korea Standard Time).

After the match against Taiwan, the national team will face Cuba on the 14th, Japan on the 15th, the Dominican Republic on the 16th, and Australia on the 18th. If they rank within the top two in five qualifying matches, they will advance to the Super Round from the 21st. Korea reached the Super Round in both 2015 and 2019, beating the U.S. to become the first winner in 2015, and ranking second after losing to Japan in 2019.

Coach Ryu, his coaching staff and players are preparing silently, but the WBSC and the Taiwan Baseball Organization are not helping the Korean team. Korea was able to come to Taipei Dome, the main baseball stadium for this group qualifying round, only on Thursday, the eve of the Asian Games, and the team had not experienced it in many years. Among the 28 players in the team, Na Seung-yup and Cho Byung-hyun, who participated in the Asian Baseball Championship last year, were the only ones who experienced it before.

Prior to this, something difficult to understand occurred in the evaluation match against the Taiwan Professional Baseball (CPBL) Wei Quan Dragons at Tianmu Baseball Stadium on the 10th. Initially, South Korea decided to use the third-base dugout in the game, but on the day of the game, WBSC suddenly notified it that it was changed to the first-base dugout.

The press conference for the championship, which was held on Wednesday, a day before the group qualifying round, was held. Coaches and captains of Korean, Taiwanese, Dominican Republic, and Cuban national teams attended the conference, as well as reporters from all over the world. However, the organizers neither installed proper Korean interpreters nor prepared simultaneous interpretation equipment. It was customary for an international press conference to be held by a moderator who can speak English, but the moderator did not do so. A WBSC official only told the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) that he did not know what's wrong with the moderator.

While the press conference was delayed by 10 minutes without prior notice, guests from Taiwan were introduced one after another and some of them came to the stage to greet each other. They only praised Taipei Dome, which opened last year, and in the meantime, interpretation was not done properly. The other three countries became bridesmaids for their feast.

Then came the coaches and captains of Korea, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. Again, a problem arose here. They did not answer any questions from reporters in attendance, only one question that the organizing committee had prepared. At the press conference on the day, each team had time to announce its starting pitcher in the first game. This was also a suggestion at a meeting of managers. However, the order suddenly disappeared. When asked about a starting pitcher, Ryu decided to mention Ko Young-pyo (KT Wiz), who he had nominated, but as the time for questioning disappeared, there was no time to talk about it.

In response, the KBO had time for Ryu to announce his starting pitcher and explain why. Even after the interview, Ryu couldn't hide his discomfort over the press conference. Taiwan coach Chung Hao-jwi even said, "If you let me know the Korean team's starting pitcher, I will tell you the Taiwanese team's starting pitcher," but added, "Look at the official announcement (for Taiwanese team's starting pitcher).