Vietnamese volleyball still cannot overcome inherent weaknesses

This result forced coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his team to face a very strong team, Ha Nam Club (China) in the quarterfinals. This opponent was highly rated when showing explosive play, winning an important victory against Aranmare Club (Japan) in the second place match of Group B. Not to mention, if they overcome the Chinese representative, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team will likely have to face Expressway Club (Korea) again in the semi-finals.

The Vietnamese women's volleyball team (right) needs to overcome its weaknesses if it wants to go further.

At this year's VTV Cup, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team revealed weaknesses that they thought they had overcome in the past, which were the first serve and weak defense. In the match against Kuanysh Club (Kazakhstan), the continuous failure of the first serve was the reason why the Vietnamese team quickly lost 3 games, surprising the audience. In the match against Expressway Club (Korea), despite coming from behind to win in the final minutes, no one could be assured of the playing style of the Vietnamese players. Those who were considered the best first serve players, such as libero Khanh Dang, still failed to complete their tasks. Typically, in the third set, leading by 6 points, the Vietnamese team let their opponents equalize the gap with 6 consecutive serves due to a failure of the first serve, causing them to lose their spirit and lose this set 25/16.

After this match, coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet admitted that some positions of the Vietnamese team played below their ability, and still have not overcome weaknesses in defense and catching the first step.

Not only the women's volleyball team, the Vietnamese men's volleyball team did not even win 1 match against 3 teams Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines in 2 rounds (6 matches), ranking last in the 2024 Southeast Asian Volleyball Tournament that just ended recently. The reason is also because the first step and the back line defense are weak and unstable, leading to unfortunate losses.

Looking at the strongest opponent in the region, the Thai women's team, we can understand why the Vietnamese women's team has not been able to defeat them in any match. The players of this country perform the first step as accurately as the top teams in the continent such as Japan, China... Also thanks to the good first step, the ability to defend the back row of the Thai women's team is also excellent, they can save very difficult balls. This is also the reason why Thailand always participates in the Volleyball Nations League, while the Vietnamese women's team can only participate in the Challenger Cup (which is only the qualifying round of the Volleyball Nations League).

If this weakness is not improved and thoroughly overcome, Vietnamese women's volleyball will always have to chase the shadow of Thailand.

Today (August 29), the quarter-finals of the VTV Cup 2024 will take place. The Vietnamese team will meet Ha Nam Club at 5:00 p.m. (live on VTV2 and VTV Can Tho ). The first quarter-final match will be between Expressway Club (Korea) and King Whale Taipei Club (Taiwan) at 12:00 p.m. The remaining two quarter-final matches will be between Korabelka Club (Russia) and Paint Masters Club (Philippines) at 2:30 p.m. and Kuanysh Club (Kazakhstan) and Aranmare Club (Japan) at 7:30 p.m.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bong-chuyen-viet-nam-van-chua-the-khac-phuc-cac-diem-yeu-co-huu-185240828220920276.htm