The Hindu : Sport / Volleyball : Korea qualifies for World championship

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 04, 2005

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Sport - Volleyball

Korea qualifies for World championship

M.C. Raman

CELEBRATING IN STYLE: Korean players toss their head coach Gong Jeong-Bae after their five-set win over India. — Photo: Vino John

Chennai: Korea braved the 13,000 strong crowd, which heavily rooted for the home team, and broke the spirit of India brick by brick to win its second play-off match at 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-19, 15-12 in 103 minutes in the second phase of the World senior men championship qualifier at the SDAT multipurpose indoor stadium here on Sunday.

With two wins in the three-team league Korea bagged the Hyundai Cup and Australia, with one win, the IOB Cup. They both qualified for the main World championship, to be held in Japan in 2006, along with Kazakhstan, Iran and China from Asia. India missed the bus again, coming third in this competition.

In the post-match press briefing the Korean coach Gong Jeong-Bae said that he had given only a 50-50 chance for his team. But India's loss to Australia gave confidence to Korea. He felt India threw a bigger challenge than Australia and his team was a newly assembled one, lacking in experience. He also said India's defence was weak and his team cashed in on it.

Rousing start

India made a rousing start and rattled Korea with strong attack and block. It led 16-11 and looked well set to take it in straight sets, which was the only chance for the home team to make it to the main World championship. Tom Joseph was spiking well. Subba Rao blocked and attacked strongly over the block, overpowering the rival completely with his presence. That was a superb momentum that the crowd relished.

But in the second set two bad services and Korea surged to 8-4 and it became impossible for India to catch up. Korea was gaining ground with controlled spiking. It went for touch-out against the towering Australians, but it spiked with excellent control against India from second set onwards. Chang Byung-chul became unstoppable and Jang Young-Ki and Lee Sun-Kyu, a good short ball attacker, lent good support.

They found holes in India's block now and then while India's net defence was good in patches. Whenever Subba Rao, Rajiv and Kapil Dev combined well they really shut out the Koreans. But the Korean setter Kwon's arc passes made Chang effective. So was Jang.

However, block rebounds and drops were not taken and India was slipping badly in the fourth set. Korea surged to 16-8 and it was here that India lost the grip badly. Once the lead was taken Korea fought even more strongly. It happened in the fifth set also.

Vibrant attack

Setter Ravikanth Reddy came for Kapil Dev in the third set and that made India's attack vibrant. But Korea's superb backcourt defence kept the team in the race and India came under tremendous pressure on the home court. It did not play a free game and its spirit was broken. India collected 50 points out of 116 spikes and 20 out of 96 in block. Korea secured 78 points out of 142 spikes and 8 out of 60 in block. Korea committed 28 errors against India's 22. Still it was Korea's consistency that won the match.

The Indian coach G.E. Sridharan said India's performance against China was the best, though it did lose close sets. But in this match too his team's attack and service reception improved, but defence was not up to the mark. He said the planning was good, but the team did not rise to the occasion.

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