Coming off an embarrassing third-place finish at the 2023 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Challenge Cup last month that ended their six-year return to the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL), the South Korean men’s volleyball team nearly fell short against world No. 63 Indonesia.
Led by head coach Lim Do-heon, the Korean men’s volleyball team came from behind to defeat Indonesia 3-2 (25-16 19-25 22-25 25-19 16-14) in the quarterfinals of the Asian Championships at Al Ghadir Stadium in Urmia, Iran on Wednesday.
The 28th-ranked men’s national team, who were hoping to use the tournament as an opportunity to revitalize the sport, narrowly defeated the 63rd-ranked Indonesians.
The Koreans, who had earlier swept Bangladesh and Pakistan in pool play to finish first in Pool F, beat the second-ranked Indonesians in Pool C to reach the quarterfinals. 온라인바카라
South Korea will face the winner of the China-India match on Thursday at 9:45 p.m. ET for a spot in the quarterfinals.
It looked like South Korea would have an easy time of it against the underdogs when they cruised to a 25-16 victory in the first set, led by a strong performance from Heo Soo-bong (Hyundai Capital).
However, in the second set, they lost the initiative as their reception faltered against Indonesia’s powerful serve.
Baffled by an unorthodox offense that alternated between short A and long C tosses, Korea lost the second set 19-25.
In the third set, Korea continued to battle back and forth, but back-to-back errors by Lim Dong-hyuk (Korean Air) and Na Kyung-bok (DOD) at the end of the set put them in danger of losing another set and being eliminated.
Korea recovered from the fourth set with the help of Jeong Ji-seok (Korean Air) and narrowly defeated Indonesia in the fifth set.
In the fifth set, Korea struggled with Indonesia’s passing game and faced match point at 13-14, but after an opponent’s error, Korea tied the match with a service ace by Jeong Jung-yong (Korean Air).
The match narrowly came to an end when Jeong Ji-seok neutralized Indonesia’s blocking with a strong spike.