Korean NT 2021

    Quote from futurefound

    Han Song Yi gots to go. I'm sorry. Nothing against her or her age but I can clearly see she's not trying hard. She's just there. She doesn't have the Olympics package. The team should rather focus on the younger, faster players (despite less experience). That's the future.

    I'd beg to differ with regards to the "not trying hard" attitude part, cause from watching v-league, Song Yi is actually one of the most fired up/competitive on the KGC team.

    Constantly trying to get her teammates to do better and try harder, giving them instructions even when she's benched, trying to revive the atmosphere when they're losing when her teammates are worse at "not trying".


    But, she's not so agile and good at digs/attack covers, so I'm guessing that may be what gives off the impression as her "not trying hard" or not going for/saving the ball.


    I agree that it would have been more worthwhile if Korea used this VNL to train their younger/newer players for the 2024 Olympics instead and re-group.

    Sending younger players instead of Songyi or Pyo Seungju, but Korea is aiming for 2021 Tokyo Olympics, not 2024 haha

    This is Kim's last Olympics after all, and Korea even hired a foreign coach like Lavarini to bring Korea as far as they can.

    (irregardless of their missing main line-up due to injuries and suspension)


    So Songyi (#1 in blocking & tall height) and Seungju (no growth potential, but still better/more experienced) would be better choices for their 2021 Olympic run - not that I think they actually stand a chance with this line-up.

    IBK updated the condition of Heejin and Suji on their YouTube channel


    Suji recovered from an abdominal muscle tear from an old injury, started training this week

    Fully intends to (and is able to) join for Olympics if she's selected - but needs to compete with other centers in the running (she's not guaranteed be chosen after all)


    Heejin is still in rehab after surgery but started weight training, since Right position uses different muscles compared to Center (which she played for v-league).
    But her return for Olympics is uncertain, she said it'll depend on the result/progress of her rehab post-surgery.

    Quote from suminj

    I'd beg to differ with regards to the "not trying hard" attitude part, cause from watching v-league, Song Yi is actually one of the most fired up/competitive on the KGC team.

    Constantly trying to get her teammates to do better and try harder, giving them instructions even when she's benched, trying to revive the atmosphere when they're losing when her teammates are worse at "not trying".

    Yeah but the Olympics team will be decided based on the players' performance on the national team / at this VNL, not at the club. I think what futurefound meant was that HSY is "not trying hard" in the VNL matches we saw her in, and I must agree.

    She topped the blocking list last season, but so far I believe she only scored 1 blocking point after 6 matches. That's worse than any other MB on the team.


    If Kim Suji has fully recovered, she should be on the Olympics squad. She's also tall and already knows how to play Lavarini-style volleyball.

    Quote from motodle

    Yeah but the Olympics team will be decided based on the players' performance on the national team / at this VNL, not at the club. I think what futurefound meant was that HSY is "not trying hard" in the VNL matches we saw her in, and I must agree.

    She topped the blocking list last season, but so far I believe she only scored 1 blocking point after 6 matches. That's than any other MB on the team.


    If Kim Suji has fully recovered, she should be on the Olympics squad. She's also tall and already knows how to play Lavarini-style volleyball.

    Think what I meant to say was, its not that she has a poor attitude of "not trying hard", but she's just simply under-performing since she's not agile enough for the international stage & speed volleyball. She only got all those blocks since it was v-league level.


    And yeah Suji will stand a better chance if Songyi can't prove herself this VNL. Except when Suji played with the NT previously, its with Dayeong & Yeom - not Dain and Hyejin, so that will be taken into consideration too.

    Lavarini's play style is heavily reliant on the setter after all... But yeah, it'll likely be Suji going.

    Quote from suminj

    I'd beg to differ with regards to the "not trying hard" attitude part, cause from watching v-league, Song Yi is actually one of the most fired up/competitive on the KGC team.

    That's the V-league. Different set of expectations and environment. This is the international level prior to the main event, Olympics. I don't care how she performed in the Korean V-league because that level is so low don't get me started.

    Quote from futurefound

    That's the V-league. Different set of expectations and environment. This is the international level prior to the main event, Olympics. I don't care how she performed in the Korean V-league because that level is so low don't get me started.

    That's obvious, I'm just saying its not that she's 'not trying hard' (having a bad attitude), she's just not good enough for the international level as a center in the VNLs


    edit: not that Korea has a better choice though, perhaps Jung Hoyoung who joined AVC 2018, pity she got a bad injury at the start of the season
    she'll be a future NT lineup though

    Quote from suminj

    That's obvious, I'm just saying its not that she's 'not trying hard' (having a bad attitude), she's just not good enough for the international level as a center in the VNLs


    edit: not that Korea has a better choice though, perhaps Jung Hoyoung who joined AVC 2018, pity she got a bad injury at the start of the season
    she'll be a future NT lineup though

    Great call out. Jung Ho-Young would've been a great addition to this team. Gosh, I really wish we can get a better team together for Olympics.

    so young did great this match, very good at looking for the space between the blockers, great digs, and 4/5 service aces. a little worried about her thigh guard and her stamina; was subbed out in the 4th set bc she was too tired i think.


    kim being kim played well as usual, her reflexes seem to be coming back and she had quite a few good digs and she sets pretty well for her teammates, kinda wanna see a game where she’s the setter hahahah


    can’t say the same for the rest of the team, goodness it’s like their legs are glued to the ground. so many times the ball could be saved but they either let someone else do it or stared at each other and watched the ball drop on the floor. the frequency of such occurrences is ridiculously high and either kim/sy has to end up doing a flying dig for the ball


    thank goodness the starting libero was subbed out sometime in the 3rd set, she got aced with the ball right in front of her, didn’t even try to save the ball at times and positioning was way off.


    park jeongah as usual can’t defend, didn’t get blocked as much this game but not successful in attacks either. does not run for the ball (applicable to most of the team tbh), cannot dig even when the ball is within her reach, attacks are not effective, serves are erratic etc.


    not that there’s a better option for the OPP position though, #16 is so new that she can’t do back row attacks, very unstable with her attacks although she does have great power in them.


    don’t even get me started on the MBs, having them in the back row is equals to non existent defense. connection with the setters was a little off tday, couldn’t quite get the ball on the floor for quite a few attacks. and please for goodness sake cover ur teammate


    i kinda lean more towards the setter dain instead of yeum now, what do you guys think? think dain is more stable and has better defense, and suits lavarini’s quick plays better.


    never staying up till 3am to watch the matches again, going to regret this so badly tmr.


    pls share your thoughts everyone :)

    Don’t blame the players, blame KOVO officials for their greed and lack of foresight.


    Like econmtl wrote in one of his excellent posts, Korean Volleyball is in decline, the difference between the starting players and substitutes is enormous, in situation like this extensive preparations are essential.


    They could have shortened V-League for let’s say 2 months and give KYK (it’s her last Olympic Games for heaven’s sake!) and other players ample time for recovery and preparation. But no, they only want money.


    No wonder that players look exhausted and some of them are injured. KYK (33 years old) played 41 games last year in Korea, it’s only natural for her have some difficulties during VNL.


    PS. I really like Lee So-young performance. I’ve noticed some tapes on her thigh during the match vs Italy. I hope she’s well.

    Now that it's already week 3 of competition, nothing has changed for Yeum. I cannot see her as a main setter and so far Da-In play better. An Hyejin too, is injured now so i don't know what Lavarini has in mind for setter's position.


    The Opposites are not functioning well. I saw the stats made by Cesar (assistant coach), those 2 ranked at the bottom among all opposites in the tournament for success rate.


    ISTG they need to improve their defense! What happen to Oh Ji-young actually? She wasn't this bad before. Others too were too slow to react.


    Ps, don't let Kim & So-young play for the rest of the week.. For heaven's sake i don't want to see another player got injured:wall: KYK might already accept the fact that she will not get her olympic's medal. Too bad she's gonna end her NT's career like this. But OG is always full of surprises so hopefully there's light at the end of the tunnel for this team

    I can't speak for the whole game as I've only watched the first set. Can't remember who mentioned that Korean setters were not taught to think outside the box; and I think that was what's happening for the entirety of this tournament aside from the lack in defense. In the latter part of set 1, Italian blockers were already established at the left side of the net; but Hye Seon still forced to set it to (can't remember if it was KYK or So Young) even when Yang Hyo Jin was free. Da In's and Hye Seon's toss to the right side are still unstable; it's either short or low, which makes me miss An Hye Jin more ;(.


    Our setters can't even capitalise on transition plays, no combination plays. I think this is what LDY sets apart, and Lee Hyo Hee also (if only she was 10 years younger).


    But it is what it is. I just hope they can get all the experience and learnings in preparation for OG.

    I have so much pain watching OH-JI-YOUNG, HAN-SONG-YI and my absolute bane of existence, PYO-SEUNG-JOO. They are just not international level. They just need to stick to V-league and not even be considered for this. It's so embarrassing. I bet Lavarini knows better but is probably told to use these girls. I really hope they don't make it to the main team at the OG.


    Sorry for these harsh words but something's gotta change. If you're not seeing improvements, then CUT THEM.


    Lee-So-Young has proven her worth. I'm really happy that she's done well so far. She definitely needs more work but for her official international event for being on the floor this long, big props to her.

    Quote from futurefound

    I have so much pain watching OH-JI-YOUNG, HAN-SONG-YI and my absolute bane of existence, PYO-SEUNG-JOO. They are just not international level. They just need to stick to V-league and not even be considered for this. It's so embarrassing. I bet Lavarini knows better but is probably told to use these girls. I really hope they don't make it to the main team at the OG.


    Sorry for these harsh words but something's gotta change. If you're not seeing improvements, then CUT THEM.

    lmao same here! I got nervous whenever they are on court.


    Is this why Lavarini plan to bring 2 libero to OG? Because OJY at this point is not reliable enough and bring 4 OH also no point if at the end of the day only KYK & LSY who delivers

    Yeah already in the first game OJY was terrible--- positioning and all --- not too sure why GS Caltex picked her as LSY's replacement.

    They should just bring the two GS Caltex Liberos as they are young and can learn quickly --- Han Su Jin and Han Da Hye.

    Also hope they stop playing Lee So Young as super worried on her thigh band and don't want her to get unnecessarily injured as she needs a good start in her first season with KGC.

    Don't get me started on the setters... I'm no fan of Lee Da Young and Lee Jae Young's (school bullying) but Lee Da Young + LJY at least very clearly had raw talent + skills but I guess we gotta move on from there; although the setters (more so than the spiker role) will be the limit of this korea team which I guess now has been lowered further with KYK's aging.

    Quote from arevl

    Yeah already in the first game OJY was terrible--- positioning and all --- not too sure why GS Caltex picked her as LSY's replacement.

    They should just bring the two GS Caltex Liberos as they are young and can learn quickly --- Han Su Jin and Han Da Hye.

    Also hope they stop playing Lee So Young as super worried on her thigh band and don't want her to get unnecessarily injured as she needs a good start in her first season with KGC.

    Don't get me started on the setters... I'm no fan of Lee Da Young and Lee Jae Young's (school bullying) but Lee Da Young + LJY at least very clearly had raw talent + skills but I guess we gotta move on from there; although the setters (more so than the spiker role) will be the limit of this korea team which I guess now has been lowered further with KYK's aging.

    For older players who play in a well balanced team like Fe Garay & Larson, age is not a big deal. Not having a good support from teammates is what makes it harder

    Four liberos definitely won't work. The reality is Korea isn't Japan. It can work for a strong defense team like Japan but Korea's better advantage is having blockers. Lavarini likes having blockers a lot - he pushed for that with Korea when he first joined the group.

    only watched half of last night's match, and is it just me? Yeum seems to play slower compared to Da-In. And at least Da-In runs after the ball (defense) to keep it in play.


    So far, Hyojin is scoring a fair bit with center plays. Well... if you cant block, try to score some points in other ways, ie. side attack?


    Dont get me started with the OPP 🤦🏻‍♀️ are they there just to make up the numbers?


    And if only Kim Da-In was noticed earlier, probably could have more chances to play (int'l matches). oh well... it's back to the cycle of benching young players, and letting the experienced/older players play at vleague.


    And oh Lee So Young... :rose:i hope she's fine, and not strain herself or going into overdrive. The goal is OG, not this vnl.