[Official] The Korean national team, "How can this be" is going directly to the 2028 LA Olympics, beating both Japan and the "winning country" Taiwan, and only one team, "No. 1 in the 亞," will go directly to the 올림픽.

*This content was translated by AI.

South Korean baseball is set to create a myth once again at the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Olympics. The way the baseball event, which was revived as an official event at the LA Olympics, will play in the finals has been finalized. In Asia, the No. 1 team in the 2027 Premier 12 tournament will win one title. In other words, both Japan and Taiwan should be defeated.

The World Baseball Softball Federation (WBSC) officially announced on the 10th (Korea time) how baseball and softball events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which were approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), will advance to the finals.

A total of six teams can participate in baseball events at the LA Olympics. The host country, the United States, automatically advances to the finals. The five teams that passed the preliminary round will join the team. The venue for the tournament is Dodger Stadium, the home stadium of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which won its second consecutive World Series title.

First of all, the top two teams from the Americas, which are ranked higher than the United States at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, will qualify for the finals.

South Korea will have to stage a fierce battle to advance to the Olympic finals at the 2027 WBSC Premier 12, which will be held in November next year. This is because there are two tickets at stake in this competition.

On the Asian continent, only one top team qualifies for the Los Angeles Olympic Games. The top team from Europe and Oceania will then be on the Olympic stage.

The last one remaining chapter will be won by the No. 1 team in the final qualifying round, which is scheduled to be held in March 2028. Among the countries that failed to advance to the Olympic finals, the top two teams in the Asian Championship, the top two teams in the European Championship, the top one in the African Championship and the top one in the Oceania Championship will compete in this final qualifying round.

In the end, in order for South Korea to participate in the LA Olympics, it must achieve the best performance among Asian countries at the 2027 Premier 12 tournament next year. It can be said that not only Taiwan but also Japan must be defeated. It is by no means an easy path.

South Korea won the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Baseball was then excluded from official events at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

It was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that baseball was revived in the Olympics again. At the time, baseball was adopted as an official event at the Tokyo Games in 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, Korea has not been able to show any significant performance. In the end, he finished fourth out of six teams.

The aftermath of the Tokyo Olympics slump continued. At the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), he suffered from elimination from the preliminary round. He then bowed his head at the 2024 WBSC Premier 12 tournament with the tragedy of elimination in the group round. Since then, Korean baseball has been playing again under the banner of a generational change. Baseball has again been excluded from the official event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. But in the LA Olympics, baseball comes back.

In terms of Premier 12 tournaments alone, South Korea is the first Premier 12 tournament champion in 2015. However, he lost to Japan and finished second in the 2019 tournament, and lost to both Japan and Taiwan in the 2024 tournament, suffering from elimination from the group stage (opening round).

Considering that it is not easy to cross Japan's wall, Korea should now seek to advance to the finals through the Asian Championship. Assuming that Japan wins the ticket to the Premier 12 tournament, Taiwan is likely to be Korea's primary competitor. And we have to get to the final qualifying round and get the best performance among the six teams.

Meanwhile, the opening ceremony of the LA Olympics is scheduled for July 14, 2028. The first game of baseball will be held on the 13th, a day earlier than this. Then, there will be no game on the day of the opening ceremony on the 14th.

The tournament will be divided into two groups of three teams and will be held for three days. The games will be played at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.

The first of the three teams in each group will go straight to the semifinals. The second and third places will then play a quarterfinal match with the third and second places in the other group, respectively. Here, the two winning teams will face the first place in the semifinals (the semifinals). And the winner of the semifinal will have a match for the gold medal in the long-awaited final.

If you win the semifinals and finals after winning two games in the group stage and ranking first, you can win the gold medal by playing only four games.

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*This content was translated by AI.