▲ South Korea's Kang Lee-seul talks on the bench during the women's basketball Group C opening match of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games between South Korea and Malaysia at the Aichi International Arena in Nagoya, Japan, on the 18th.
With the women's national basketball team's ace guard Park Ji-hyun (Los Angeles Sparks) and paint pillar Park Ji-su (KB) sidelined for this tournament, the burden on veteran and national team shooter Kang Lee-seul has grown even heavier.
However, the key shooter's absence from the very first group stage match sparked concerns about her physical condition.
Meeting reporters in the mixed zone after the match, Kang explained, "My foot condition wasn't good, so I reduced my training starting back in Korea. Considering that if we go all the way to the final next week, we will have to play 5 games in 6 days, the coach decided it would be better to manage me in advance."
She added, "I can do all the running, but once I step onto the court, I feel like I wouldn't be able to pace myself properly, so we decided to rest for today's game."
Having skipped the first game for condition management, Kang is scheduled to step onto the court starting from the very next match against Mongolia on the 21st.
South Korea (ranked 14th in the FIBA rankings) overwhelmingly defeated Malaysia (ranked 83rd) 106-40 in their Group C opening match of the tournament held today (the 18th) at the Aichi International Arena in Nagoya, Japan.
In the early minutes of the game, South Korea struggled to find their field goals for about 3 minutes and 30 seconds, playing somewhat evenly against Malaysia, the weakest team in Group C.
Though she did not step onto the court herself, Kang, who offered passionate advice to her teammates from the bench, said, "The players' bodies felt heavy in the beginning, but soon they played well just like we used to. We can do even better in the next game."
Reviving their shooting touch from the second quarter to comfortably lead the first half 59-22, South Korea maintained their concentration until the end, widening the gap to over 60 points in the fourth quarter to secure an easy first victory.
Kang shared, "If we take it lightly just because there is a difference in objective strength or try forced 1-on-1 attacks, we might get bogged down instead of executing the plays we practiced. I kept telling my teammates to play our original style of basketball with confidence until the end."
She also said, "Yesterday, Japan won by a landslide of over 70 points [beating Hong Kong 114-37], so we also needed to secure a safe margin through a high-scoring win. The coach also instructed us not to take either offense or defense lightly and to stay focused until the end."
Having smoothly fastened the first button, South Korea will continue their group stage schedule against Mongolia on the 21st and Chinese Taipei on the 22nd.
Having won a medal in every Asian Games in history except for the 2004 Doha tournament [Editor's note: 2006 Doha tournament] (where they finished 4th), including the 2018 inter-Korean unified team silver medal, South Korea's ultimate goal for this tournament is to reclaim the Asian summit for the first time in 12 years since the 2014 Incheon Games.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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