Republic of Korea open their 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship campaign on Thursday (2 December) with the opening game of Group A at the Palau d’Esports de Granollers, against Congo.

But their preparation for the 25th edition of the senior women’s flagship event was not the best, with three big losses last weekend in the Intersport Cup 2021 in Bergen, Norway, against Russia (24:34), Norway (23:35) and Netherlands (25:41), although Korea’s interim coach Jang In-ik was not too concerned about the heavy defeats.

“Unfortunately, we did not have enough time for our training camp in Korea before visiting Norway,” said Jang to ihf.info on the eve of their Spain 2021 debut.

“Those three matches were more like test games for us and (Ryu) Eun-hee, who leads the team, only joined the team in Norway so we needed more time to cooperate with each other, but it's getting better.”

Ryu was also quick not to be too concerned about the final few games before her Korea team step onto court against Congo.

“Even though we lost all three games in Norway, it helped our team a lot to understand European handball more,” explained the Győr player. “We’ve only been in Spain for two days and have just started our training sessions. We need to improve a lot still – I’m not satisfied – but we’ve got a lot of things to go out and achieve here.”

Jang, who is acting as interim coach for Spain 2021 as the Korean Handball Federation search for their first-ever foreign coach, has included a mix of experience and youth in his provisional squad, with a number of players boasting a handful of senior team appearances, including some 2018 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship bronze medallists.

“When they arrived here, the players were a little nervous but it's getting better and we are having more positive vibes,” said coach Jang, who guided the senior squad to continental glory earlier this year.

“We’re trying to make the performance of players better during Spain – I want to hand over to the new coach better combinations between the old and young players and a more developed defence.”

One of those young players who excelled back in 2018 was centre back Song Hye-soo, taking the MVP award of the championship in Hungary and she returns to the senior squad at a senior World Championship after missing 2019 due to rehab from a shoulder injury following her debut in the competition at Germany 2017, aged 18.

“Hungary was almost my first championship which was full of spectators in the stadium,” explained Song about her experience back in 2018. “I got nervous in the beginning, but we still got a good result. Personally I was really happy with the result too as I became MVP of the championship.

“It's been only two days since we came to Spain, but we only have positive vibes,” added the Korea National Sports University player. “The good thing during the tournament in Norway is I succeeded with a lot of personal attacks but there were some failures during the passing because those teams are physically bigger and we made some mistakes. Our goal during Spain is to have less mistakes in defence and during attacks.”

While Korea may be looking abroad for coaching success, just two players in the provisional squad play outside of the country, with one of them, Ryu, bringing her knowledge and experience of European handball to the Korean squad for use in a variety of ways.

“Our young players get easily depressed if they lose against European teams like that,” explained Ryu about the losses in Norway. “However, nowadays, I’m playing in Europe and I understand how European handball is. All you have to do is give them a lot of good advice about European handball, more confidence and more fighting spirit. As captain of the team that is my role and that's how I think.

“After the Tokyo Olympic Games the generation has been changed dramatically,” she added. “However, they need to have more good experiences and now we're on the way to becoming a better team for the next Olympics in Paris.”

Inspiring others seems to be an almost daily occurrence for Ryu and that list includes players alongside her at Spain 2021.

“It’s really a pleasure to be with her because now that she’s playing in Europe she understands about European handball a lot,” says Song, who confirmed to ihf.info she wants to play in Europe, of Ryu. “She gives a lot of advice to other players, so it helps a lot.”

As Korea get ready to play Congo, Tunisia and Denmark in their preliminary group campaign, coach Jang is clear what he wants to achieve in Spain 2021 as the dominant women’s nation in Asia look to rekindle their success of past years.

“Recently, Korean women's handball hasn’t been that good but with a new foreign coach then I hope Korean women's handball can be developed like before,” says Jang. “I want our women's team to have a really experienced foreign coach but one who understands what Korean women's handball is.

“He or she has to adapt the European style of handball with an understanding of Korean handball as well. It should be mixed in a good way so we can have a better combination in the future.”