What hope does the Vietnamese men's volleyball team have against Qatar?

With Qatar as the quarter-final opponent of the AVC Nations Cup 2025, the ticket to the semi-finals for the men's volleyball team, Vietnam, is not very bright.

Vietnam men's volleyball team faces many challenges against Qatar - Photo: AVC

I say that not only because Qatar is strong, but also because of the low performance of coach Tran Dinh Tien's students up to now.

Quality "foreign soldiers"

In fact, Qatar has a superior level compared to the Vietnamese men's volleyball team. As of the morning of June 21, they are ranked 23rd in the world and 4th in Asia. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese men's volleyball team is ranked 55th in the world and 10th in Asia.

Qatar’s achievements in the world and continental arenas are also far superior. At the AVC Nations Cup, Qatar is the defending champion (formerly the AVC Challenge Cup). In last year’s tournament, they won convincingly by defeating a series of strong teams such as China, Kazakhstan and Pakistan.

Qatar volleyball team has quality naturalized athletes - Photo: AVC

In addition to the AVC Nations Cup championship, Qatar volleyball also achieved many remarkable achievements such as the silver medal at the 2023 FIVB Challenger Cup world championship, the bronze medal at the 2023 Asian Championship, and reaching the semi-finals of the Asian Games 3 times in the last 5 tournaments.

The reason they have achieved such achievements is thanks to the naturalization policy. For Qatar, this is no longer strange. It is even gradually being considered a tradition in this country's sports .

Thanks to naturalization, they have quality names such as striker Renan Ribeiro (Brazilian origin), Nikola Vasic (Serbia), middle blocker Papemaguette Diagne (Senegal), setter Borislav Georgiev (Bulgaria),...

It can be seen that this "foreign player" squad brings too many advantages to Qatar volleyball, especially in a second-class Asian tournament, the AVC Nations Cup.

Poor performance of Vietnam team

Quoc Duy (number 5) is currently the number one scorer of the Vietnamese men's volleyball team - Photo: AVC

Obviously, Qatar is too superior to the Vietnamese men's volleyball team. Therefore, the host Vietnam can hardly aim to win. Instead, they should probably focus on improving their playing skills.

Up to this point, the attack is not a big problem for coach Tran Dinh Tien's team. In both group stage matches against New Zealand and Korea, Vietnam's hitters have maximized their scoring ability.

Opposite Nguyen Van Quoc Duy has 32 points, ranking 6th among the top scorers at the AVC Nations Cup at the moment. Striker Nguyen Ngoc Thuan has also played impressively with 24 points. Both of them not only attack but also serve well, scoring many direct points.

The Vietnamese team's defenders (in white shirts) are not doing a good job in this year's tournament - Photo: AVC

But against a Qatar team that is much stronger than New Zealand or South Korea, the ability of this duo to score points may be limited. Qatar has many tall, agile players who read situations well. Thanks to that, the defending champion has many advantages in defense.

That is exactly what the Vietnamese men's volleyball team did not have. In the loss to Korea, the middle blockers Tran Duy Tuyen and Truong The Khai played below their best.

They were slow and read the situation inaccurately. As a result, they often dropped or missed their blocks. The poor performance of the blockers greatly affected the ability of the back line to defend.

Facing a strong and superior Qatar, although it is a big challenge, it is also an opportunity for the Vietnamese men's volleyball team to improve its weaknesses.

DUC KHUE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tuyen-bong-chuyen-nam-viet-nam-co-hy-vong-nao-truoc-qatar-20250621100256539.htm