Korea clinches success in first match on home soil – 2011 FIVB Grand Prix
The city of Busan in South Korea hosted a wonderful match on Friday, August 5, which featured Korea and Germany. The match lasted for four sets, while the hosts ousted the guest team from Germany at the loss of one set. Korea posted 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 20-25,
and 25-20) on the scoreboard and created a perfect chance of celebration for the home audience. Korea and Germany have been grouped together in Pool C which is comprised of a total of four teams. Earlier in the day, Brazil defeated Japan in the first match.
Top-scorers
Korea’s top-attacker, Kim Yeon-Koung added 28 points on 23 attacks, three blocks, and 2 serves. He was followed by Germany Margareta Kozuch on the list of top-scorers. Kozuch used 15 successful attack-attempts and two blocks to compile a score of 17 points
in the match. Both teams were credited for 10 blocks apiece, however victory graced Korea.
Match overview
The opening phase of the match missed the thrilling part as the players on both sides took a lot of time to settle down in their position. Korean team had the obvious advantage of playing under familiar conditions. They hit the mark and attacked with Kim
Yeon-Koung. She put forward nice shots and raised her team’s score. In response, German side also attempted frequent attacks and tied the score 10-all. Korea had a strong defence as the blocks of Kim See-Young barred Germany to score points. See-Young was
equally active in attacks. She threw the ball in German half skilfully and led her team to success in the first set.
Korean side found a great rhythm in second set and remained consistent in hitting the ball hard. German Nadga Schaus threw her hands in the air at almost every shot attempted over the net but Korean score kept soaring up. Germany’s tactics didn’t work in
the second set, while Korea took away another set in the match.
After dropping two set in row, German squad was totally raged up. They took the initiative of hitting the ball in rare gaps and corners. Finally, Germany seemed to have its form back in third set. Margareta’s attacks became effective and Germany left Korea
behind. Third set slipped from the hands of Koreans as they trailed behind with 5 points.
The clouds of uncertainty started roaming about German squad as Korea bounced back in fourth set. Ssuschke-Voigt of Germany struggled to save her team from regret and registered some crucial points. Germany picked up lead but Korea came a long way to tie
the score at 18-all. Then Korea played fast and quickly covered the length of fourth set. Success in fourth set enabled Korea to announce match victory.
Quotes and Comments
Lee Sook-Ja, the captain of Korean talked about the match at press conference. He said: “In spite of injured players and short training sessions, we are very pleased to have the victory. However, I am sorry for the Korean fans as we did not show our best
performance. Tomorrow, we have a match with the Japanese team. As you know, the Japanese are very quick, so we have to focus on blocking tomorrow.”
His counterpart, Christiane Furst, congratulated Korea for winning the opening match. He credited them for a strong and persistent defence. Meanwhile, he assured that Germany will rise up in the upcoming matches with better and improved performances. “The
Korean team played very well. The German team also played really hard, but Korean player No.10 Kim Yeon-Koung was outstanding. The reason for the loss is that we could not defend against her play. The German team is still weak in blocking, which we have to
get over.” added the German coach Giovanni Guidetti
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