WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - KOREA VS AUSTRALIA

March 9, 2026

Ji-Hyun Ryu

Tokyo Dome

Team Korea

Postgame Press Conference

Korea 7, Australia 2.

Q. Congratulations to go for the quarterfinal it's been a while. What does it mean for to the only the team but the fans in Korea, what is in your mind?

JI-HYUN RYU: Yes, looking back to the WBC 20206 round, all the games were tough and after we clinch the game against Czech Republic and play a tough game against Team Japan, I had some issue inside the team. We had a difficult story and some of them, I cannot let you guys know until the tournament is over.

But overall, all the players played with a lot of tension. And previously before the game tonight, I had spoke of a little story but it was not everything. Overall, all the effort by the players made this great contribution of winning.

Q. Looking back at today's game, you previously mentioned a while ago that today's game was probably one of the most unforgettable games of your career. What is the point of today's game?

JI-HYUN RYU: Before the game start, I told him, no rush, no rush, calm down. Score first, run first, keep the momentum. That was our game plan. Game point, probably we gave up a run but we only have the top of the ninth, but the top of the ninth, the players put all their attention on the field.

But all the history, we got it together. And also, Young Son Ju I think he pitched two innings. He did a good job as well.

Also, Lee Jung Hoo, the line drive out to right field, he made a great catch. That was a tough play but he was such a great player with confidence. These things all combined and made a special result.

Q. You signed as manager of Korea and probably today's game was the most unforgettable moment, but among today's game what is the moment of your highlight of managing Korea?

JI-HYUN RYU: Yeah, since I signed, throughout my career, as a coach and manager of the national team, I've been spending time and not only managing time but also my whole baseball life, tonight was the most meaningful and most important and most great result we made. This is something I would like to dedicate to all the KBO staff, players, ballclubs, each individual carrier ballclubs. This is all their effort.

Last year, when I was assigned last February, the first movie did was we had an international match in March, so I had only one month's time. During that short period of time, I had a certain strategy in order to be prepared for the March 5th game.

All the KBO ballclub cooperate so well to the national team. These small things are very helpful to us. This is the sixth annual WBC tournament to pay anticipate for Team Korea and we just made the first time ever to do a bullpen session before each individual's spring trainings and also in the bullpen session during the spring training, I think the velocity of all the pitching staff has leveled up.

Also, I would like to share about the data analyst, the scouting report. The teams did great study, and looking back from 2023, I had another data, so all combined, we have a great scouting report. And not only for the opponent data but also to select the national teams.

So without having the KBO's cooperation, great cooperation, today's game would not have happened. Every time I ask for something, they answer me and most likely I will say 99.9 percent they can answer me as I want. These are the things that lead to tonight's win.

So your question is what's the best memory among tonight's game, but tonight's game is the most unforgettable moment of my life.

Q. If you allowed one more one that could be game-ending, but the entire game, some young pitchers made great pitches. Do you have any messages for your younger bullpen pitchers?

JI-HYUN RYU: As you know, if the run differences were more than five, or if we minimize the other two, these are the conditions. What made it difficult for us is not the offense to score but also to minimize the earned runs of the other two.

And I thought before the game start, defense is more key than offense. That's what my expectation of tonight's game. Regarding tonight's game, this is a must-win game by pitching.

So with tonight's great pressure, we made it by younger pitcher, and some of them gave up a run but they also minimized. So all this effort made a great balance.

But among them, Noh Kyung-Eun did the greatest pitch of tonight. He's not just in great but in the bullpen session before he went to the mound. We were planning to put him on to the third inning. That was kind of a designed movement.

At the bottom of the second I asked our starting pitcher and then we had an additional one minute so he could have a certain time. I think our starting pitcher got hurt, and we had a conversation throughout the umpires, and also Team Australia, David Nilsson, also accepted an unexpected emergency accident happened. Even though it was an emergency pitch outing, he pitched two innings without a score, so that probably the thing I'm most thankful for in tonight's game.

Q. When Korea was in the second Classic, the second round was a minimum of two games. Do you think that the current elimination format hurts teams that travel for Asia for a match against Dominican or Venezuela?

JI-HYUN RYU: To be honest, we just finished today's game, and today's game was so important, and we are almost on the edge. This was a must-win game with a certain condition, and all of our members, including coaches, went out with a hundred percent concentration. So that's what we did.

So starting from tomorrow, let's get great rest tonight, and make the brain empty. Starting from tomorrow, let's think about the quarterfinal.