One set lost - one persistent weakness

The Vietnamese women's volleyball team has just won the AVC Nations Cup 2025 championship after defeating the Philippine women's team 3-0 in the final match on the evening of June 14.

In addition to the championship, the Vietnamese team also had 3 people awarded individual prizes: Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen won the title of Best Athlete and Best Opposite; Tran Thi Thanh Thuy was awarded the title of Best Striker and Nguyen Khanh Dang was voted the Best Libero of the tournament.

In a tournament where the opponents of the Vietnamese team were all "average" or weak, the championship that the Vietnamese girls won was something that was predicted. The most remarkable impression was that the majority of the winning score was 3-0 in favor of Vietnam; the team only lost 1 set (19-25) in the semi-final match against the Kazakhstan women's team. Unfortunately, from this lost set, fans clearly saw that one of the inherent weaknesses of Vietnamese women's volleyball has not been improved, even though it has been pointed out by volleyball experts for a long time. That is the ability to defend in general, and the first step in particular. At the end of set 1 and in set 2 of the semi-final, the first step errors of the Vietnamese athletes, especially the main attacker - captain Tran Thi Thanh Thuy, were thoroughly exploited by the opponents, not only helping the Kazakhstan team have a better game but also making the Vietnamese girls' mentality not good.

After the tournament, the head coach of the Vietnamese women's volleyball team, Mr. Nguyen Tuan Kiet, also admitted the above limitations. He said that the situation could have been worse if the opponent that day had been a really strong team.

The AVC Nations Cup 2025 and VTV Cup 2025, which will kick off at the end of this month, are important tournaments to help the Vietnamese women's volleyball team prepare for the 33rd SEA Games taking place at the end of this year as well as the 2026 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship. Facing very strong opponents such as Thailand (at the 33rd SEA Games) and China, Japan, and South Korea that we may encounter at the 2026 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship, the weak first-step skills of the Vietnamese team are a fatal weakness that strong teams can effectively exploit and are the main reason why the second set is not "smooth", the attack plan at the net is monotonous and predictable.

Good coaches at club and national team level don't let this type of weakness persist year after year.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/mot-set-thua-mot-diem-yeu-dai-dang-706444.html