The start of the 2024 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Asian Youth Championship is just one day away.
The South Korea U20 Men’s National Volleyball Team, led by head coach Kim Jang-bin, will compete at the 2024 AVC Asian Youth Championships in Surabaya, Indonesia, from Nov. 23-30. The top four finishers will qualify for the World Youth Championship the following year.
The team departed on Nov. 16 and has had a week of acclimatization training. They will now face their first test in a day. In Group D of the qualifiers, South Korea will play Vietnam on Wednesday, Thailand on Thursday and Kazakhstan on Friday. If they finish in the top two, 파워볼사이트 추천 they will advance to the quarterfinals.
If they make it through the preliminary round, Korea will play in Group F with one team from the same group and the first- and second-place finishers from Group B in the quarterfinals. Like the preliminaries, the matches will be played in a round robin format, with the top two teams earning a ticket to the quarterfinals. Teams will not face off against teams from the same group, but will continue to play their preliminary matches. This means that teams will need to get off to a good start in the preliminary round to ensure an easy path to the quarterfinals.
At the other end of the spectrum, in Group B, Iran and China will face off in the quarterfinals. Both teams are considered strong enough to be the favorites to win the tournament. Iran is the favorite, having finished runner-up at the Asian Youth Championships two years ago and the World Youth Championships last year.
However, South Korea is said to have an equally solid roster. Most of the players who caused a stir at last year’s World Youth Championships by winning the ‘first bronze medal in 30 years’ are still on the U20 squad. In addition, some players such as Lee Woo-jin (Vero Bali Monza), Yoon Seo-jin (KB Insurance), and Kang Seung-il (Korean Air) have become more seasoned through their professional experience, and with the addition of Yoon Kyung (Namyanggo), Yoon Ha-joon (Suseonggo), and Kim Kwan-woo (Cheonango), “the organization is much better than last year. I think each player has improved a lot,” said Kim.
If South Korea finishes first in qualifying, they will only need to win one of their two quarterfinal matches against China and Iran to secure a spot in the last four. Kim envisions a scenario where South Korea focuses on qualifying first and then beats China to advance to the higher rounds. Two years ago, South Korea already defeated China in this tournament.
In addition, South Korea has invested in a strong serve and use of the center ahead of the tournament, which Kim says is an effective tactic against a taller team like China. “Our primary goal is to finish first in the group stage. After that, we expect to face China, Iran, and others in the quarterfinals. These teams have good power, but they are especially strong in height. We need to use a variety of tactics to face them, and a strong serve can be one of them.”
“We have a lot of players with good serves. About four of the main players have strong spike serves that can be used directly to score points. Kim Kwan-woo, in particular, has a good tossing ability, but his serve is very sharp even though he is a setter.”
“In a country like Korea, where the players are not very tall, the center must be well utilized to help the wing attack come alive. This is something I always emphasize, not only with the national team but also with the Soosung High players I coach. It has been important to me since the beginning of my coaching career,” he said.
In conclusion, Kim said, “I don’t think there’s an easy or a difficult bracket in the world. You have to do your best no matter who you face. Facing a strong opponent is not an excuse to lose. “We beat China two years ago, and we lost to Iran at the World Youth Championship last year, but we took the first set and were evenly matched until the middle of the second set. I remember that we struggled against Iran in terms of physical strength rather than skill. Of course, both teams have improved a lot since then, but I think our players have also grown a lot.”