The South Korean women's volleyball team, led by new head coach Fernando Morales, lost to China 3-0 on Tuesday in the first match of the 2024 Volleyball Nations League (VNL), extending its losing streak in the annual tournament to 28 games.
The VNL is an annual international competition in which 16 countries participate in multiple locations around the world.
In the match held in Brazil on Tuesday, South Korea was unable to take the initiative from the beginning. Morales' team scored multiple points in the first set, but their defense was unstable and they were unable to make proactive moves, resulting in one goal after another.
China, on the other hand, was superior in almost every area, being sharper and faster in attack and showing better positioning in defense.
The difference in offensive power was evident throughout the contest, with four Chinese players (Yingying Li with 17 points, Mengzi Wu with 14 points, Xinyue Yuan with 12 points, and Xiangyu Gong with 10 points) scoring in double figures. However, only Kang So-hui recorded a point. In Korea, it is 12 o'clock.
Although South Korea lost the first set 25-15, they were unable to quickly respond to China's attacks in the second set and lost 25-16. Korea could not recover in the third quarter and lost 3-0, 25-14 in Morales' first game as coach.
Morales took over in March after former head coach Cesar Hernandez, who finished fifth at the Hangzhou Asian Games last fall, was fired last October.
Tuesday's loss matched the outcome of the previous meeting between South Korea and China at the Asian Games.
This loss extended South Korea's losing streak in the VNL to 28 games. The team suffered three straight losses in the 2021 VNL and lost all 24 games in the 2022 and 2023 tournaments.
Another failure in this year's VNL will see South Korea fall further down the FIVB rankings, with the country dropping one place to 41st after Tuesday's contest. South Korea's ranking has plummeted since finishing in the semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics, dropping from 14th place in 2021 to 41st place.
South Korea will next face No. 3 Brazil on Thursday, No. 8 Dominican Republic on Saturday and No. 13 Thailand on Sunday.
The game against Thailand is scheduled to close out the first week of the 2024 VNL schedule, with South Korea heading to the United States in the second week from May 28 to June 2, and then in the third week from June 11 to 16. Head to Japan.
Text: Baek Ji-hwan [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]