Led by head coach Cesar Hernández González, the South Korean women’s volleyball team has set its sights on reaching the quarterfinals of the 2023 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship. The team has promised a different approach to the tournament after a disappointing showing at their most recent international event, the Volleyball Nations League (VNL).토토사이트
“We had a team meeting and set a goal of reaching the quarterfinals,” coach Cesar said at the Jincheon Athletic Center in Chungcheongbuk-do on Sunday. A total of 14 teams are competing in the tournament, which starts on Sept. 30 in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. South Korea is in Group C with Taiwan, Vietnam, and Uzbekistan.
Although they have never won the tournament, South Korea has been a favorite, finishing as runner-up seven times. They finished third in the last edition in 2019 and have never failed to reach the quarterfinals. However, after a disastrous performance in their most recent international event, the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), which saw them lose for the second year in a row, they have lowered their sights.
Nevertheless, with the stage now narrowed to Asia, the team is hopeful of improving on the VNL results. While the players agreed that “all opponents are difficult,” they also seemed more confident. “There is no guarantee of victory, but I think we have a better chance than at VNL,” said national team middle blocker Lee Da-hyun (Hyundai E&C) in front of the media. The players have also improved in terms of communication.”
The team has three weeks to prepare for the tournament. “We’re working on different goals for each week,” said Cesar. “Week 1 was focused on fitness and injury management for the players who joined the KOVO Cup, and now in week 2, we’re working on offense. In week three, we have a scrimmage scheduled to give us more practice.” “I’ve been very happy with the last two sessions,” he said, explaining the importance of the process, “I think results come when you do the best you can in the areas you can control, such as training, weights, and opponent analysis.
“I think results come when you do the best you can in terms of training, weight, and analyzing your opponents,” he said. The team will need to perform well at the Olympic Qualifiers and the Hangzhou Asian Games immediately after the Asian Championships if they are to regain their honor. “For now, we’re going to focus on the competition, which is less than 10 days away. “We will evaluate based on this competition and prepare for the other big competitions,” he said.
Apart from their performance, the team also left behind the regret that they were unable to show the colors of the Korean national team, which is undergoing a generational change. “We want to focus on the ‘serve,’ which was the strength of the team in the VNL,” said Coach Cesar, “and our goal is to improve our attack success rate to over 40%.” He concluded by saying, “We will work hard until the last ball hits the ground with the grit to not give up.”