Alarm bell for Asian women's volleyball

Japan's top-four finish at the 2025 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship cannot mask the harsh reality of Asian teams.

The success of the Japanese women's volleyball team cannot hide the decline of Asia - Photo: FIVB

Asia has a total of 4 teams participating in this year's tournament: China, Japan, Vietnam and host Thailand.

Japan cannot hold out forever.

Japanese volleyball is famous for its tenacious defense, whether it is the men's or women's team. They do not have tall, strong players. But in return, they are very agile and read situations very quickly. This philosophy has followed Japanese volleyball for a long time, because they understand that competing in terms of physique with European and South American teams is impossible.

At the 2025 Women’s Volleyball World Championship, Japan had the shortest average height, at just 1.75m. They still advanced to the semi-finals after victories over big opponents like Serbia and the Netherlands. But the problem gradually became apparent when Japan could no longer defend.

After all, the key to volleyball is to score points. You have to score points to win. Defense helps Japan withstand attacks from opponents, but it cannot help them score points.

Attackers like Mayu Ishikawa and Yukiko Wada still scored impressively, but their performance gradually decreased as they advanced. Wada scored 19 attack points in the semi-final against Türkiye, but also had 5 offensive errors and 14 other unsuccessful attempts.

Ishikawa made 17 points, but also lost 8 points and failed 16 times. The problem with Japanese attackers is that they do not have a strong smash, and their momentum is limited, making them vulnerable to blocking. That is the weakness of being small and light.

Chinese volleyball is in decline - Photo: FIVB

China is in decline, Thailand is not good enough

Japan made it to the semi-finals anyway, which was an acceptable result. China, despite being the favorites, were eliminated in the round of 16, the first knockout round.

That was also a loss to France, a team that has never been highly rated in women's volleyball. China may use the excuse of preparing for future tournaments such as the 2028 Olympics, so they advocate using young, inexperienced athletes.

But with their level, China should at least reach the quarterfinals and not be eliminated so early. Looking at the names of the past, it is really not easy to see the future of Chinese women's volleyball. No one has brought excitement and enthusiasm like the previous legends such as Lang Ping, Zhu Ting, Yan Ni, Ding Xia...

China is in decline, while host Thailand is still standing still. Despite being given the opportunity to compete in the Volleyball Nations League for many years, the team from Southeast Asia has not made much progress. This year, they were even almost relegated.

At the 2025 World Cup, Thailand is quite lucky to be the host and in the same group with weaker teams, including rookie Sweden. Otherwise, they might have had to stop early in the group stage like the Vietnam team, also a rookie.

Apart from these four names, two other teams that have almost disappeared are Korea and Kazakhstan despite having glorious pasts. This is truly an alarm bell for Asian women's volleyball in the face of the strong rise of European teams.

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DUC KHUE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hoi-chuong-bao-dong-cho-bong-chuyen-nu-chau-a-20250908102031024.htm