Korean women's handball team loses 30-23 to Slovenia

The loss is still a bearable result for Korea, as it is their first loss at this year’s Olympics. A fourth-place finish in Group A guarantees a spot in the quarterfinals.

Korean handball player Kang Eun-hye, right, in action during a Paris Olympics handball game against Slovenia at South Paris Arena 6 in Paris on Sunday. [NEWS1]

The Korean women’s handball team failed to secure a second straight win in Group A at the Paris Olympics after losing 30-23 to Slovenia on Sunday at South Paris Arena in Paris.

Korea struggled to dominate in the first half due to their shaky defense and failed to adjust to Slovenia’s quick attacks in the second half.

For Slovenia, it was their first Olympic win after a loss to Denmark on Thursday. This year marks the Slovenian women’s handball team’s first time competing in the Games.

Slovenia displayed a strong performance in the early going, finding cracks in Korea’s defense and scoring consecutive goals to take the score to 6-3 by the ninth minute.

But Korea denied Slovenia a chance to stretch the gap, with their attack finding cohesion to snatch the lead and make it 7-6 in the 15th minute.

Korea's sloppy defense, however, continued to cause problems, allowing Slovenia to constantly penetrate in the center to score goals and turn things around to make it 14-12 before halftime.

The defense struggled again in the early minutes of the second half and allowed quick attacks by Slovenia. Defenders reacted slowly and did not mark a single player at the same time.

They were also sluggish when defending against counterattacks, leaving Slovenia to score multiple goals and stretch the score to 21-12 in the 38th minute.

Korea scored a few goals after but failed to close the gap through the end to lose 30-23.

The loss is still a bearable result for Korea, as it is their first loss at this year’s Olympics. A fourth-place finish in Group A guarantees a spot in the quarterfinals.

In the Olympic handball tournament, 12 teams are divided into two groups of six, with the top four sides from each group reaching the knockout stage.

Winning a handball medal this year would not only bring Korea the only medal across all the team sports, but it would also end a long medal drought. The women’s team has not reached the podium since they won a bronze medal in 2008.

All other Korean men's and women's national teams such as football and volleyball failed to qualify for the Games.

Korea next face Norway on July 30.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]