Vietnam men's volleyball team: What is the goal at SEA V.League?

tuyển bóng chuyền nam Việt Nam - Ảnh 1. — Vietnam men's volleyball team brings the strongest lineup to SEA V.League 2025 - Photo: AVC

SEA V.League 2025 is a Southeast Asian level tournament with 5 participating teams including defending champions Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and newcomer Cambodia.

Improve performance

After two seasons at SEA V.League, the Vietnamese men's team is having mixed results. In 2023, they won the silver medal overall after two stages.

However, 2024 was a season to forget for coach Tran Dinh Tien's team when they lost all 6 matches in the two stages, finishing at the bottom of the rankings. At that time, the whole team received countless criticisms for their lack of versatility and easy-to-predict play. This was also understandable when the number 1 setter Dinh Van Duy was injured and had to miss the SEA V.League 2024.

This time, the whole team is looking forward to the new season with a strong squad. Dinh Van Duy returned at the beginning of this year and quickly played an important role in the memorable journey at the AVC Nations Cup. In addition, opposite setter Pham Van Hiep has also recovered from injury and is ready to enter the SEA V.League.

With this lineup, the goal of the Vietnamese men's volleyball team is to improve their performance compared to last season. While Indonesia and Thailand are still quite strong, in the matches against the Philippines and Cambodia, fans will expect good results from the Vietnamese team.

Be careful of falling in rank.

The new point this year is that SEA V.League is recognized as a scoring tournament by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB). Therefore, the matches of the tournament can affect the rankings of the teams on the world rankings.

This is both beneficial and somewhat harmful to the Vietnamese men's volleyball team. Although not the strongest team in the region, the Vietnamese men's team was the team with the best ranking about 2 months ago.

Specifically, after the AVC Nations Cup, although the Vietnamese team dropped to 61st place, it is still second in Southeast Asia (after Thailand, ranked 60). Indonesia is ranked 65th, the Philippines is ranked 67th, and Cambodia is not ranked yet.

Being ranked so high can cause the Vietnamese men's volleyball team to lose a lot of points if they lose to teams ranked lower. This is also a huge pressure. Therefore, in addition to improving results, the whole team needs to find ways to minimize the damage from falling in the world rankings.

Regarding the attack, Coach Tran Dinh Tien can temporarily rest assured about the scoring ability of Ngoc Thuan, Quoc Duy, and Van Hiep. The problem will lie in the defense ability. In which, the first step has always been the eternal weakness of Vietnamese volleyball. The unsatisfactory first step is the reason that affects the team's attacking ability.

And the defensive ability of the blockers has also caused an alarming situation recently. At the AVC Nations Cup in June, the Vietnamese blockers often misjudged and let blocks through. Therefore, the whole team needs to overcome these two weaknesses to aim for favorable results.

Preparing for SEA Games

Because this year's SEA V.League is based on ranking points, all teams bring their strongest squads. This is also an opportunity for them to test their abilities and performance in preparation for the SEA Games at the end of this year.

Currently, Indonesia has won three consecutive gold medals. Meanwhile, Thailand is determined to break the opponent's winning streak. Cambodia has emerged as a phenomenon worth watching in Southeast Asia in the past few years. Therefore, men's volleyball tournaments in the region such as SEA V.League or SEA Games have also become more attractive.

DUC KHUE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tuyen-bong-chuyen-nam-viet-nam-muc-tieu-nao-tai-sea-v-league-20250709092627242.htm