Vietnam women's volleyball team has a historic opportunity

Full of talent

Since the beginning of 2023, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team has participated in two continental-level tournaments, the Asian Women's Club Volleyball Cup and the Asian Women's Challenge Volleyball Cup. However, these are two tournaments that have not had the participation of the continent's top teams. In the Asian Women's Club Tournament, the Vietnamese team participated under the name Sport Center 1 and won the championship, but the force of the Sport Center 1 team is actually all Vietnamese players, while China, Japan, and Thailand sent real clubs to participate in the tournament.

Tran Thi Thanh Thuy (3) is the scoring machine of the Vietnamese team.

Next, in the Asian Women's Volleyball Challenge Cup, the teams participated as national teams, but the tournament did not have the participation of the top teams in the continent such as China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Kazakhstan. Therefore, the championship title of this tournament was not too surprising because the Vietnamese team was rated higher than the remaining opponents such as Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines.

Meanwhile, the 2023 Asian Volleyball Championship taking place in Thailand attracts the participation of all the top teams in the continent including China (ranked 6th in the world), Japan (ranked 8th), Thailand (15th), South Korea (35th), Kazakhstan (39th). The Vietnamese women's team (ranked 44th) has excellently defeated the South Korean team, who brought the strongest force to the tournament, to finish first in Group C, entering the second qualifying round.

Historic opportunity

According to the regulations of the 2023 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship, the first and second place teams in Group C, Vietnam and South Korea, will combine with the first and second place teams in Group A, Thailand and Australia, to form Group E in the second qualifying round (the other group includes China, Japan, Kazakhstan and India). The teams will compete in a round-robin to select the first and second place teams from the two groups to enter the semi-finals. In this second qualifying round, the results of the matches between the teams in the same group in the first qualifying round will remain the same, so coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his team have an advantage with 2 points thanks to a 3-2 victory over South Korea in the first qualifying round. Thailand "pocketed" 3 points after previously defeating Australia 3-0.

Vietnam women's team (blue shirt) determined to win

If the Thai team plays at their best, beating South Korea with a score of 3-0 or 3-1, and the Vietnamese team beats Australia (ranked 52) with one of the two scores above, the two Southeast Asian volleyball teams will soon enter the semi-finals. At that time, the match between the Vietnamese team and host Thailand in the last round will only be to compete for first and second place in the group. This is the most likely possibility and also meets the wishes of Vietnamese volleyball fans. If successful, Tran Thi Thanh Thuy and her teammates will enter the semi-finals of the Asian Championship for the first time.

The Vietnamese team will be in a difficult position if Thailand loses or only wins 3-2 against Korea. At that time, coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his team will likely have the same score as Korea and will have to consider the sub-indices of total wins/losses, total wins/losses, and head-to-heads.

The second qualifying round schedule is also favorable for the Vietnamese women's volleyball team when they meet the Australian team in the first match at 6:00 p.m. today, while host Thailand meets Korea at 3:00 p.m. In the final match on September 4, the Vietnamese team will meet Thailand at 6:00 p.m., while Korea will meet Australia at 3:00 p.m. The key to success for the Vietnamese women's volleyball team in 2023 is long-term concentration from the beginning of the year, training and competing in many tournaments without much change in force. Striker Tran Thi Thanh Thuy has proven that her level is not much inferior to the top opponents in the continent. In addition, there is progress and stability from Hoang Thi Kieu Trinh, Nguyen Thi Trinh, setter Doan Thi Lam Oanh and libero Nguyen Khanh Dang.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/bong-chuyen-nu-viet-nam-truoc-co-hoi-lich-su-185230902132705036.htm