In a few hours, in Yokohama, the baseball team of the Dominican Republic will play the most important game in its Olympic history, in which the bronze medal is in dispute. To rise to the podium, he will have to beat the South Korean national team, the opponents he has already faced in Tokyo 2020.
From the playoffs to the Bronze game, those led by Hector Borg made Dominican baseball history. Representation has not appeared at the Olympics since its inception in Barcelona in 1992, where he finished sixth, and is now one step closer to entering the select group of Olympic medalists.
Throughout history, only six countries have made it to the Olympic baseball podium: Cuba, the United States, Japan, Australia, Chinese Taipei, and the Republic of Korea.
Indeed, the Republic of Korea was the defending champion and won in Beijing 2008, The last time the sport took place at the Games, before returning in Tokyo 2020.
However, the latest evidence that it will be a difficult match is the duel that the ninth Asian and Caribbean team fought a few days ago in the first round. Then the Borg team surrendered 4-3.
In their campaign in Japan, the Dominicans lost 4-3 to the hosts and returned 1-0 at the expense of Mexico in the group stage. In the second round of qualifying, they beat Israel 7-6, then fell to the United States (3-1).
For its part, the South Korean team defeated Israel (6-5, 11-1) and could not beat the United States (4-2 and 7-2) and Japan (5-2).
The game is scheduled for 12:00 on Saturday, August 7 in Japan (23:00 on Friday 6, in the Dominican Republic), with Yokohama Baseball as the stage.
On the next shift, 19:00 JST, Japan and the United States will meet for the gold medal.
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