Losing again, Thai women's volleyball team prepares to return to the 'village pond'

Consecutive unfavorable results have pushed the Thai women's volleyball team to the bottom of the FIVB Nations League (VNL) 2025 season.

Thailand women's volleyball team (red shirt) faces the risk of being eliminated from VNL - Photo: XN

What Thai volleyball fans feared finally happened. In the 11th match of the VNL 2025 group stage, the Thai women's team lost 0-3 to the Dominican Republic.

And then shortly after, the Korean women's volleyball team played resiliently, only losing to Bulgaria with a score of 2-3 in the same round.

This result immediately swapped the positions between Korea and Thailand on the VNL rankings. Before the 11th round, Thailand ranked 17/18, while Korea ranked last.

Both had 1 win in this year's tournament, and up to that point Thailand was still slightly ahead in terms of goal difference. But Thailand's loss to the Dominican Republic and South Korea's 2 wins against Bulgaria changed the situation.

Currently, South Korea has 11 wins in this year's tournament, while Thailand has only 9, thereby surpassing its continental rival.

Fortunately for Thailand, South Korea lost 0-3 to France in their final match of the tournament on the afternoon of July 13. Thailand still has one last chance to improve their record - the match against Canada on the morning of July 14.

It can be said that this is Thailand's final match. Canada is not a very strong opponent. In the last 5 encounters, Thailand won 2.

In this year's tournament, the performance of the Canadian women's volleyball team was only slightly better than that of Thailand. They only had 2 wins in the tournament, ranking 16th out of 18 teams.

However, with their current poor form, Thailand will be under heavy pressure. They lost 1-3 in their last match against Canada, and need to win at least 2 games in tomorrow morning's match to overcome Korea.

VNL is a tournament that was born in 2018, creating a playground that allows powerful volleyball teams from around the world to compete continuously.

Thanks to this tournament, the level of Thai women's volleyball has been raised from the top level of the continent to the world level. There was a time when they were in the top 8 in the world.

In the past, VNL had 16 teams, and did not consider relegation for the group of 12 core teams - including Thailand.

But from this season, VNL will expand to 18 teams, and by default the team that finishes last in the group stage will be eliminated from next season.

This tournament spot will be awarded to the highest ranked team on the FIVB rankings - and not yet present in the VNL. That means to win this ticket, you must at least be in the world top 18. Currently, Vietnam is ranked 26th, still quite far from this goal.

As for Thailand, being eliminated from the VNL will be a painful blow to their ambition to reach the next level in women's volleyball.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lai-thua-tran-bong-chuyen-nu-thai-lan-chuan-bi-ve-lai-ao-lang-20250713152655299.htm