Posts by econmtl

Man, it must be so tough to be a fan of the Implosion Bomb Kings! Lazareva, Pyo Seung-joo, Yuk Seo-young are all very prone to bonehead plays. At this point, your team's gotta lead by at least 10 pts to feel confident about the set. Just last game, they blew up a 24-20 lead. Not very good for your heart.

It was a good game. IBK hit first with a surge from Lazareva early in the first set, while Kang So-hwi was still asleep. Then, Yuk Seo-young took over and brought the set home. Kim Hee-jin played well in the first half of the game, getting two important blocks in + for the first time this year (except maybe that one game when she cried) was a reliable attacking option. The Hee-jin Song-hwa connection was ON today, giving more space for Lazareva. Hopefully, it will continue.

During the second set, GS Caltex stroke first but IBK reversed and maintained the lead till the end. The third and fourth sets were great volleyball. I would watch the replay just to see those moments. It could have gone one way or the other, with both teams displaying skill and crucial errors...

Some comments on individual players:

GS Caltex:

Lutz was solid once again. She made a couple of errors but was very stable overall. What you see is what you get with her. You can always expect her to give you the same level every game. Even when she's not on top of her game, she can still dominate just by the virtue of her height. She's playing at another level this year. What impresses me the most is not only the improvement in her consistency but also the huge step up she made defensively. She's no longer the black hole on the back row. Today she took a couple of hard shots from Lazareva like a queen.

Kang So-hui slept for the first 1,5 sets but woke up in the 3rd. She took almost a 50% share of the reception on her team, so kudos for that even though she made a few errors. I don't think she's 100% healthy yet, so I'm giving her a pass for a while.

Lee So-young was a bit underwhelming. She played well in the first half to keep her team in the game but became more and more invisible as the game progressed and became a 1v1 Lutz vs Lazareva match.

Ahn Hye-jin was so so. Should have fed Kang So-hwi better in the earlier parts of the game to get her into a rhythm. Made a bad ball-breaking beom sil in the last set by spiking into the net instead of just giving a free ball to the other team.

Han Su-ji and Kim Yu-ri: non-existent.

IBK:

Lazareva: she's like a grenade that can either destroy the other team or explode right in your face! SO MANY ERRORS. At this point, she's a player that can give you 40 points + 10 errors on a good game. That's who she is at this point in her career. Don't forget that she's only 23, the same as Kang So-hwi. Incredibly high potential but also high variance in performance. She needs some kind of leader, either a coach or a veteran player, to calm her down during key moments and encourage her. Never go too high, never go too low. That should be her mentality going forward. She played smarter this game. During the second round, I felt like she went in to swing at full power all the time even when a hard wall was in front of her. With IBK being terrible at covering, if her attack failed, it became an automatic block point for the opponent... She varied her attacks more this game. Her errors were one of the main reasons for losing the 3rd set, but she stepped up big time in the 4th to win the game.

Now knowing who she is, her strengths and flaws, it's the coach's job to build the optimal team around her. I'm really not convinced Kim Woo-jae is the right person for the job. Great scout, horrible in-game management...

Yuk Seo-young: when Lazareva falters, she takes over. She won the first set for her team. Even though she's only a second-year player, she has a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders. She needs to continue working on her reception and minimize serve errors. I don't know yet if she'll be So-young So-hwi level or Kim Mi-yeon Go Ye-rim level, but you can just feel she'll be IBK's cornerstone for years to come. Maybe something in between. She still seems to huff and puff at times during the game. Get into better shape. I'm sure if she can shred a bit more of that baby fat and get a couple of pounds lighter, her vertical jump might even improve.

Pyo Seung-joo: a 50/50 player, 50% decent 50% bonehead. Will give any coach a lot of stress, frustration, and earlier grey hairs. But when she's good, you'll be glad she's on your team. However, the good to bad ratio might not be worth it for a team aspiring for a championship. Next year, throw all the money you can at Lee So-young, expose Pyo Seung-joo, and protect Yuk Seo-young instead.

Kim Hee-jin: my girl played a good game today. She is THE key to IBK's success this year. If she plays well, as a credible threat down the middle, the other team will have to worry about her at all times and won't be able to cheat on Lazareva. She needs to step up her blocking game though. IBK is the team that spends the most on MB, yet is among if not the worst blocking team in the league. I feel like she's still 1-2 seconds/steps behind the play. Looks lost at times not knowing where the ball is.

Kim Su-ji: needs to give more.

Cho Song-hwa: not a huge fan. Has a tendency to set the ball way too close to the net... Slowfooted to the point where it hurts her team sometimes. Overreliance on bump sets makes it easier to defend. Weak back sets. She played a good game today. Was a bit erratic at times but improved as the game went on. I like her in-game leadership though. Great defender, perhaps the best among setters. Always well positioned, her IQ compensates for her lack of speed. She's just not fast enough to save a terrible reception 😂🤣.

Hi-pass deserved this one. At 0-2, they never gave up when they could have crumbled. And it gave us THAT interview at the end hahahaha. It was just meant to be. IBK lacked that killer instinct to finish the game. Instead, they continued to make errors, throwing away sets for free... TWENTY freaking serve errors alone. LOL. Kelsie got emotional at the end. Hopefully, this will start a winning trend for Hi-pass; they deserve better than their record.

The bear woke up today! After being scratched as a starter (!), Park Jeong-ah really earned her nickname in the clutch! Kelsie being more subdued offensively today, Jeong-ah had to carry the team on her back during sets 3 and 4. And she did it (with a lot of help from IBK)! So that brought us one of the more "interesting" situation at the end when Park was named MVP. You could smell the awkwardness like an old divorced couple randomly meeting at a party . Gargamel and Park Jeong-ah should just go on Eye Contact and bury the hatchet . That would make for a good show!

Speaking of Kelsie, she didn't play a great game but she really bailed her team out as a defender in the back row during crucial moments. It still hasn't clicked yet with the setter and she needs more consistency, but you can see the potential.

Kim Hee-jin gets an F today. Come on... You can't be paid 500 M KRW and score only 4 points in a 5 set game, the same as your opponent's SETTER. If only you were being unproductive, but then you go on to make 4 serve errors + a net touch penalty at the worst possible moment when your team was leading... So far, she just doesn't connect with Cho Song-hwa, rendering her attacks quasi-useless. She's not that prolific at blocking either... In two rounds, Kim Hee-jin has played only one good game. If she's still battling injuries, Coach should sit her down a bit and play Choi Ga-eun instead. Otherwise, no excuse girl! Especially as the Captain of your team, you should go and earn your money!

Kim Su-ji was not that much better, although some of her trademark attacks worked today. But she also committed 4 serve errors + one bonehead net touch at the worst time possible, killing the rhythm of her team. Those two veterans are most of your salary cap, in the same position. That's a lot of cap space spent on players that have not been difference-makers this year (yet).

Lazareva got blocked 10 times today! A lot of it is due to Song-hwa's piss poor tosses, but as the number one option, you need to close the game during clutch moments. Her youth and inexperience are showing. Good play or bad play, you got to keep your calm and encourage your teammates. When they see you pouting, it doesn't help the atmosphere at all.

I don't if Slow Song-hwa or Cho Bump-set is a more appropriate nickname for this player. She lacks the two fundamental skills for a setter: footspeed and tossing... The fact that she's widely viewed as the third best in her country (although Ahn Hye-jin is right there) is really telling about the quality of setters in Korea. As a setter, it's your job to get to the ball, to fix a bad ball. Speedy Da-yeong does it well. If you want to kill IBK, just target the hell out of Pyo Seung-joo on the serve, Cho Song-hwa slowly chases after the ball, bump sets the ball to Lazareva, opponent already prepared, so the ball ends with a block. The slowest setter + the worst receiving team is a dangerous, if not exciting combination. She needs to work on her backsets. Put the ball higher man!

Pyo Seung-joo played a strong game today. Perhaps her best game of the year. When she's on a good run, she can give you 15 pts easy. What's frustrating about her is that she can really step up at times and give you a solid all-around game (like during that match against Belgium). But when her reception starts to shake a little, she tends to also get erratic on the attack and it starts a negative spiral. If she can improve that mental aspect of her game, IBK will be good.

Big shout out to Yuk Seo-young. What a gem! Here's a second-year player in her first full season as a starter playing like a veteran. Super underappreciated because she doesn't have the "visual" of other young fandom friendly players. The best OH prospect since Kang So-hwi. She'll probably end up with better stats as a second-year than "second-year So-hwi" since she'll have more responsibilities with IBK. Her reception is improving day by day. She has guts and plays powerfully. What she lacks is just experience (and perhaps a better vertical jump). She still makes a lot of errors with the serve. You don't need to go for the ace 100% of the time! You should take into account the timing and your team's situation in the game. Sometimes it's better to just play it safe, slightly put it above the net than go for the kill and finish with a beom sil instead...