Korea face off Thailand in the quarter-final of the 16th Asian Games Women’s Volleyball Tournament
The wonderful Korean squad sparked out with a great performance in quarter-final of Women’s Volleyball Championship at the 2010 Asian Games. Korea collided with Thailand in a bruising encounter on Wednesday, 24th November, 2010. Thailand was
thought to be better side but Korea shocked them with an exquisite play and turned many heads around with a sensational upset. The head-to-head battle kept both sides busy for 1hour and 56 minutes. Finally Korean side rose up with better status. They posted
3-2 (25-23, 17-25, 27-25, 7-25, 25-12) victory over Thailand and clinched a spot in the semi-final.
The underdog Korean side had less international exposure but they shook off the wrong impression by defeating Thailand in five-set thriller. Korean ladies, put up a combined effort and captured a great honour for their country.
First set
Thailand opened the match with powerful serves. Nootsara Tomkom supplied enough power to the ball and threw the ball in Korean half. On the other side of net, Korean defence expert was in right position to receive the ball. She returned the ball and defended
very well. In the meantime, Thailand committed ball-handling errors, which promptly helped Korea to build an early lead. Kim Yong Mi and Jong Jin Sim of Korea formed a good combination and developed good timing to hit the ball in right direction. They attacked
from different angles and ball perfectly landed in Thailand’s half. Korea led the game up till second technical timeout.
Thailand hit back anggressively and struggled to chase the score. They controlled their reception errors and added consecutive points with the help of Malika Kanthong’s spikes. Soon their hard work paid off and they were able to tie the score at 22-22 and
23-23. Nonetheless, Min Ok Ju of Korea gave the final touch to the first set and got a perfect kill to end it at 25-23.
Second set
After dropping the first set, Thailand formulized a different strategy and attacked Korea from the back row. Utaiwan Kaensing and Onuma Sittirak stormed Korea’s half with ground breaking spikes. It seemed as if ‘revenge’ was the order of second set. Sim
Ok Han of Korea put up a great fight and blocked many sharp spikes. Despite of great effort in second set, Korea failed to stop Thailand’s score. Thai team added quick points and levelled the game by winning second set (25-17).
Third Set
Third set of the game was an eye-catching encounter. Both sides attacked each other with best of their tricks and techniques. The score soared up with a close gap. Clouds of suspense and uncertainty roamed about the scene until the ending moments. Finally
Yong’s deadly spike enabled Korea to secure third set with a score of 27-25.
Fourth Set
Quite ironically, Korea suffered a humiliating 7-25 defeat in the important fourth set, which created a chance for Thailand to try luck in the next set.
Fifth Set
Korea resumed the top-form in 15-point golden set and hit strongly. They recovered from the shock of defeat in last set and built a solid lead of 9-3 in the early minutes. The killing under-hand shots of Jong and Yong forced Thailand to stay behind the attack
line. They extended their lead to 11-7 but Thailand resisted aggressively. It was a ‘do or die’ situation for them. They narrowed the gap of points but luck stood by Korea. Thailand failed the save reputation and lost the golden set to Korea (15-12).
The head coach of Korean team, Sun Ok Kang appreciated the amazing work of his team and wished them luck for the next matches. He said, “We only established the team two month ago. Most of the players are very young and lack experience. We came here only
to learn from other teams," said DPR Korean head coach. "Volleyball is very popular in our country. And our training conditions are the same as other teams, nothing special."
Likewise, K. Radchatagriengkai, Thailand's head coach said "I am very sorry to my country and people. We have tried our best but we made many mistakes. I will always analyze why we made so many mistakes so as to avoid in the future."
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