This seals it. Kim Su-ji is the cutest thing in the world
That's always been my opinion 
South Korea - Women's V-League 2020-2021
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So there are two new juicy pieces of controversy today in V-league world.
Controversy Number 1: IBK - The Soup Shuttle Incident
So the full video of cute Kim Su-ji I posted above has been deleted by Kovo. The reason is that the long video featured a scene that became quite controversial. When Kovo visits IBK's cafeteria, the video shows young players having to serve food to their senior players. In particular, there seems to be a system, a "soup shuttle" of some sort where the rookies and second-year players take turns in becoming servers whose role is to bring soup to older players.
The top scene of the video is when we see rookie Kim Su-bin bring a bowl to Cho Song-hwa and not even getting a look nor a "thank you" in return. It seemed as if it were a natural thing that younger players should serve the seniors.
I remember being a bit irked by it, but then just thought "Ah, it must just be Korean culture and their hierarchical philosophy" and forgot about it. But then, the netizens and fans were quite shocked by it and began angryposting everywhere in the comments on Youtube, in volleyball galleries, and even on IBK's own fanboard. It was near-unanimous, things like that don't even happen in the military anymore! Why can't you bring and eat your own food? Why are you taking those high school graduates to become your waitress?
And so KOVO shat their pants and deleted the video on Youtube. What's more interesting to me is that while this incident seems way overblown, all this happened on camera when the players clearly knew they were being filmed. It just seemed so natural to them. I wonder about the stuff we never get to see. How tough must life be for young guns... And the cycle will likely continue when the young become old...
Someone died earlier this year because of the volleyball culture. Then, the season restarted and people just kind of forgot (or intentionally forgot), continuing to cheer for their favorite team. While I'm certainly not giving Hyundai a pass and WILL cheer for their defeat every game, it would be incredibly naive to think that there isn't a similar environment elsewhere.
You can look at the controversy here. It's in Korean, but we can figure it out pretty easily...
https://sports.news.naver.com/…hn?oid=022&aid=0003533664
https://sports.news.naver.com/…hn?oid=005&aid=0001391412
Controversy Number 2: Heungkuk - The Civil War
There appears to be a HUUUUGE crisis going on with the Pink Spiders. They've just lost their second game in a row, but more importantly, there seems to be a civil war going on between certain players...
Apparently, the center of it all is Lee Da-yeong, who is in conflict with a senior player on the team. According to the anonymous source, Lee Da-yeong has a bad relationship with another star-level player. An (anonymous) official from Heungkuk didn't seem to deny that info, stating that both players are training hard, that we will take care of it to not make it worse in the future, and that we will make it a good look for the fans.
Of course in good netizen fashion, people have been speculating on who the other person might be. Some have pointed out to Kim Na-hee, the veteran among veterans with Heungkuk. But she's a bench player now at this stage of her career, not a star. The other possibilities are KYK, Lee Jae-yeong (now THAT would be something!) and Kim Mi-yeon. I doubt it would be Kim Se-young, age-gap and all... Lucia? LOL.
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Doesn't surprised me at all with juniors have to serve seniors culture. I remember watching a korean reality show about some foreign guys did training in a korean company. When it's time for lunch they need to take lunch order from every single employees who order different type of foods because of their lowest ranking in the company. It happened in kdrama too how junior in the office is basically a 'slave' for their senior.
Lee Dayeong sometimes posted how she got really stress from lots of bad comments directed at her through sns, but idk if crisis happened between players. Based on the matches that I watched so far, she seems fine getting along with KYK, Lucia Kim Seyeong and Kim Miyeon. And she always posted ig story hanging out with her twin, Juah and some Heungkuk junior players, But idk about Kim Nahee. She rarely gets play time nowadays so not sure about her
About Hyundai, the way the club and KOVO handled it is a joke. How Hyundai did internal investigation themselves when they were the ones who being accused of mistreated their player is so bizarre. But I feel bad for other players who doesn't even involve at all.
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dang I hope whatever it is gets resolved. I don't think my twins will say anything about "who" this player maybe, their future is still bright, there's no winning/loosing regardless of what they choose.
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Reading the stats, what happened to Lee Seon Woo? I thought being MVP of their last match made KGC put her on the court again, at least as a playing sub... Choi Eun Ji and Ji Min Kyeong perform badly ..Diouf worked alone, again... I guess KGC coach hasn't trust LSW yet...
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Reading the stats, what happened to Lee Seon Woo? I thought being MVP of their last match made KGC put her on the court again, at least as a playing sub... Choi Eun Ji and Ji Min Kyeong perform badly ..Diouf worked alone, again... I guess KGC coach hasn't trust LSW yet...
She got exposed badly as a starter against Hyundai. They scored like 5-6 points (don't really remember exactly) targeting her very early in the first set. In particular, Rousseaux was feasting on her with the serve. So she got subbed out really quick.
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She got exposed badly as a starter against Hyundai. They scored like 5-6 points (don't really remember exactly) targeting her very early in the first set. In particular, Rousseaux was feasting on her with the serve. So she got subbed out really quick.
I guess as a rookie it's possible that could "destroy" her confidence...I hope she recover fast...
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I guess as a rookie it's possible that could "destroy" her confidence...I hope she recover fast...
Welcome to the major leagues, kiddo!
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At this rate, if still like this, I don't think Lavarini should call Kim HJ and Kim SJ to NT... Jung Ji Hyun and Lee Da Hyun can replace them if necessary..
MBs already plenty choices: Yang HJ, Han Song Yi, Kim Yu Ri, Han Soo Ji, Park EJ, Lee Ju Ah...So, no problem in that position...
Jung JH if she keeps perform well, can be candidate for OPP...
Anyway, very disappointed with Kim HJ n Kim SJ performance...
Just watched only last 10 pts in Hillstate v Kixx, Jung JH n Lee DH performed very well... It seems Jung JH getting better in her wing spiker position....
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Didn't Lavarini experimenting with Jun Jihyun as wing spiker in VNL before? Against non-asian tall blockers, she's not that good. But who knows, she might get another chance in NT if she performs well this season.
I think Kim Heejin is the type of player who did well in NT more than in club. I don't think Lavarini will replaced her as his 1st choice. Even when she wasn't in good condition and didn't perform well when IBK experimenting her as OPP last season, she still joined NT to Olympic Qualification in Thailand.
Yes I would like to see Lee Dahyun in NT, replacing Lee Juah. She's much faster in attacking and better in blocking than the latter. For Kim Suji, well, her biggest advantage is experience. Sometimes experience is crucial in big stage like Olympic.
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Yeah, there is a noticeable difference between V-League success vs International Competitions success. Short players that dominate in Korea with their power like Kang So-hwi and Jeong Ji-yun are completely nullified against a taller block on the international stage. Though in JJY's case, the VNL 2019 was during her second season when she was still a 19-year-old quasi-rookie. So I'll give her a pass since she didn't do bad at all for a kid.
KYK, Lee Jae-yeong, Park Jeong-ah and Kim Hee-jin were really the only wing players whose attacks had any effect on non-Asian international players.
The OP position is so thin in Korea. The way she's playing now, Park Jeong-ah is pretty much a lock, at least by default. So it leaves you with one spot among "2021 out of shape Hee-jin", Jeong Ji-yun, Ha Hye-jin, Moon Jeong-won, 150-year-old Hwang Youn-joo... If nothing changes form-wise for the players till the Olympics (I doubt it), it's basically betting on Kim Hee-jin to regain her form (my girl looks 10-15 pounds overweight honestly...) vs a 180cm inexperienced player.
The middle blocker situation is more interesting. Yang Hyo-jin is a lock even though she has been underperforming this year. You then got two spots to use among Kim Su-ji, Han Song-yi, Lee Ju-ah, Park Eun-jin and Lee Da-hyun. Kim Yu-ri, Han Su-ji and Bae Yoo-na are good-to-great V-League MBs but they're way too small and likely to become BBQ chicken against foreign monsters. I really don't know what's the best combo for the Olympics... You got YHJ as your #1 who has very high IQ but low mobility. So you gotta bring a complementary player who moves a bit more to diversify your attacks.
I have to scratch Lee Ju-ah first cause she's too weak as a blocker (unless there's an improvement this year). Now Han Song-yi has certainly been more consistent than Kim Su-ji in V-League, but she's still an amateur MB who transitioned into the position to prolong her career... She has never faced strong international competition as an MB before... Kim Su-ji has always stepped up for the National Team regardless of her performance in Korea. And I feel that her style of play is, among MBs, the one most suited for Lavarini's game. He seems to really love her too. But if she keeps sucking until the Olympics... Difficult choices indeed! Park Eun-jin is the most interesting case. Very inconsistent in V-League (she's still so young), but when called upon last year for the NT, she was surprising, even destroying Brazil a couple times during the World Cup. Lee Da-hyun is a total unknown, but she's been pretty clutch this year, she's smart as hell and I have no doubt she'll have a greater career than both LJH and PEJ. As far as I'm concerned, Jung Ho-young (if she recovers 100%) and Lee Da-hyun are my top 1-2 for the future. But do you bring a quasi-rookie to the big game? So long story short, rotate and test 4-5 MBs during the VNL 2021 and bring the 3 best for the Olympics
.Since KYK and LJY are locks as OH, there are two spots to fill. You need to add at least one defensive specialist, a relief receiver, so the third spot should be given to Lee So-young for her versatility. Now the fourth spot, do you spend it on Kang So-hwi, who is pretty much a serve specialist on the international stage? Or, do you keep Park Jeong-ah as OH/OP and bring Kim Hee-jin + Jeong Ji-yun as OP duo?
For the liberos, Lavarini himself said that he wants someone to act as a second setter when Da-yeong doesn't get the ball. I like players who can control and set the ball from the back row with their hands instead of just bump setting everything that comes their way. So my favorites are Oh Ji-young and Kim Yeon-gyeong (and ultimately Oh Ji-young for the Olympics). But it wouldn't be surprising if Yim Myung-ok gets a call.
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Last season Kixx was a solid team.. So strong that reached #2 in the league that neck to neck with #1 Hillstate.. only few loss, less than 5 if I'm not mistaken, until the end of R5 before it was stopped..
Even then Lee So Young injured almost half a season...
This season I thought they are gonna be stronger with Lee SY in play from the start .. not much change of roster..They can win against Pink Spider, but so far they already suffer 6 loss from various teams... Are the other teams also getting stronger? Might be, because beside Pink Spider, the other teams have defeat each other it seems...
It's gonna be interesting.. more competitive... like it should be...
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Display More
So there are two new juicy pieces of controversy today in V-league world.
Controversy Number 1: IBK - The Soup Shuttle Incident
So the full video of cute Kim Su-ji I posted above has been deleted by Kovo. The reason is that the long video featured a scene that became quite controversial. When Kovo visits IBK's cafeteria, the video shows young players having to serve food to their senior players. In particular, there seems to be a system, a "soup shuttle" of some sort where the rookies and second-year players take turns in becoming servers whose role is to bring soup to older players.
The top scene of the video is when we see rookie Kim Su-bin bring a bowl to Cho Song-hwa and not even getting a look nor a "thank you" in return. It seemed as if it were a natural thing that younger players should serve the seniors.
I remember being a bit irked by it, but then just thought "Ah, it must just be Korean culture and their hierarchical philosophy" and forgot about it. But then, the netizens and fans were quite shocked by it and began angryposting everywhere in the comments on Youtube, in volleyball galleries, and even on IBK's own fanboard. It was near-unanimous, things like that don't even happen in the military anymore! Why can't you bring and eat your own food? Why are you taking those high school graduates to become your waitress?
And so KOVO shat their pants and deleted the video on Youtube. What's more interesting to me is that while this incident seems way overblown, all this happened on camera when the players clearly knew they were being filmed. It just seemed so natural to them. I wonder about the stuff we never get to see. How tough must life be for young guns... And the cycle will likely continue when the young become old...
Someone died earlier this year because of the volleyball culture. Then, the season restarted and people just kind of forgot (or intentionally forgot), continuing to cheer for their favorite team. While I'm certainly not giving Hyundai a pass and WILL cheer for their defeat every game, it would be incredibly naive to think that there isn't a similar environment elsewhere.
You can look at the controversy here. It's in Korean, but we can figure it out pretty easily...
https://sports.news.naver.com/…hn?oid=022&aid=0003533664
https://sports.news.naver.com/…hn?oid=005&aid=0001391412
Controversy Number 2: Heungkuk - The Civil War
There appears to be a HUUUUGE crisis going on with the Pink Spiders. They've just lost their second game in a row, but more importantly, there seems to be a civil war going on between certain players...
Apparently, the center of it all is Lee Da-yeong, who is in conflict with a senior player on the team. According to the anonymous source, Lee Da-yeong has a bad relationship with another star-level player. An (anonymous) official from Heungkuk didn't seem to deny that info, stating that both players are training hard, that we will take care of it to not make it worse in the future, and that we will make it a good look for the fans.
Of course in good netizen fashion, people have been speculating on who the other person might be. Some have pointed out to Kim Na-hee, the veteran among veterans with Heungkuk. But she's a bench player now at this stage of her career, not a star. The other possibilities are KYK, Lee Jae-yeong (now THAT would be something!) and Kim Mi-yeon. I doubt it would be Kim Se-young, age-gap and all... Lucia? LOL.
Have we seen how Lee Da-yeong sets to the hitters? If she's intentionally giving bad sets to someone, then that may be a sign....
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Have we seen how Lee Da-yeong sets to the hitters? If she's intentionally giving bad sets to someone, then that may be a sign....
If we want to based on that, it would be the receiving line who made the game difficult lol.
On serious note, no. She's playing like usual. I mean, it'd be stupid move to intentionally sabotaging your teammates when all eyes on you on that day.
. That's volleyball basics! We're in round 3 and yet there isn't any visible improvement on those aspects of the game. 🤦🤦🤦