When the Korean baseball team was eliminated in the first round of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), foreign media pointed out that it had fallen even though it had a major league keystone combination.
Daily Sports, a Japanese media outlet, said on the 13th, “As Australia beat the Czech Republic, Korea was eliminated in the first round ahead of the final match against China. I couldn’t take a single step,” he said.
He added, “Korea made rapid progress in the WBC history by winning the 1st semifinal and the 2nd runner-up. However, starting from the 3rd tournament, Korea failed to avoid being knocked out in the 1st round.”
Korea, which is recording 1 win and 2 losses, has lost the number of cases of advancing to the second round regardless of the result of the final match against China. Australia beat the Czech Republic 8-3 and recorded 3 wins and 1 loss, advancing to the quarterfinals in second place following Japan (4 wins), first place in Group B.
Korea lost 7-8 in the first game against Australia, which was a watershed for advancing to the quarterfinals, and was driven to the edge of the cliff.
Daily Sports said, “Korea lost 8 runs in the match against Australia and 13 runs in the match against Japan as the mound couldn’t hold up. In the end, Australia defeated the Czech Republic and scored 3 wins and 1 loss, and Korea was eliminated after only 1 win and 2 losses.”
Nikkan Sports also pointed out the sluggishness of the major leagues while reporting the news of Korea’s three consecutive elimination. The media said, “Edman was suffering from binta throughout the tournament, and Kim Ha-seong was sluggish in the first two games.”
MLB.com, which operates the WBC official website, also highlighted Korea’s elimination with Australia advancing to the quarterfinals for the first time in history.
The media said that Korea may fall to the bottom of the group depending on the result of the match against China and miss the 2026 WBC finals.
MLB.com said, “The Czech Republic, which finished the tournament with 1 win and 3 losses, is waiting for the results of the Korea-China match.” If Korea beats China, the Czech Republic will go directly to the 2026 WBC finals. The rate is used to determine the final ranking,” he explained.
The 1st to 4th places in each group in the first round of the WBC will automatically advance to the next tournament. 스포츠토토
If Korea, which beat the Czech Republic 7-3 earlier, loses by giving more than 10 points to China, it could slip to the bottom.
If Korea finishes 5th in Group B, it will be forced into a humiliating situation where it has to go through the WBC qualifiers with Taiwan, which finished 5th in Group A.
Meanwhile, some Japanese media introduced the reaction of Korean media and Korean baseball fans to Korea’s early elimination.