Thailand, Japan turn up heat at knockout quarter-finals

Thailand, current world No.14 and champions in 2012, became the only team which have yet lost to their respective rivals to top Pool A. Powered by superstar spiker Pleumjit Thinkaow, and strengthened by many experienced players who played in the Thailand national squad which had won two Asian Senior Women’s Championship in 2009 in Hanoi, Vietnam and 2013 at home including Wilavan Apinyapong and Malika Kanthong, Thailand struggled hard to beat Taiwan in exhausting five sets in their opening clash before brushing off hosts Vietnam and Iran in comfortable straight sets. At the end of the preliminaries, Thailand had 8 points from three straight wins.

Vietnam delighted home fans with their hard-fought five-set win over Iran before going down to in-form Thailand in straight sets and completed their Pool A campaign in high note after producing a fantastic comeback 3-2 victory over Taiwan on Friday. The remarkable run in the preliminaries brought much fame and reputation to the host side. Their stunning win over Taiwan for the first time in several years received thumbs up from a large number of Vietnamese fans packing the Vinh Phuc Gymnasium. Vietnam finished second place in Pool A with 4 points from two wins, both matches ended in 3-2, against one loss.

Taiwan almost beat Thailand’s national team for the first time in more than 10 years after leading commandingly 14-12 to need a point win in the decider, but just let the maiden win slip through their fingers when the Thais recovered to win the tie-breaker 17-15. Following the disappointing loss to Thailand, Taiwan regained the lost pride by beating Iran in straight sets, but failed in their attempts to beat the hosts in their final preliminary match. Taiwan came in third place in Pool A with 5 points from one win over Iran against two losses against Thailand and Vietnam, both matches ended in 2-3.

Iran became the underdogs in Pool A as they did not win a match in the preliminaries to finish fourth place in the pool.

Meanwhile. Japan, title-holders China and Kazakhstan had the similar performances in Pool B with two wins against one loss. Nonetheless, taking their match-won/match-lost into consideration, Japan top Pool B with 7 points, followed by China and Kazakhstan with 6 and 5 points respectively. Korea became the only team in the tournament which have yet won a set to finish fourth place in Pool B without scoring a point.

Japan, though sending a young, promising squad, came much stronger this time to make a superb start in this tournament following an impressive 3-1 win over Kazakhstan. They were narrowly beaten 2-3 by defending and three-time champions China before thrashing young, inexperienced Korea in easy straight sets in their final preliminary encounter on Friday.

China, the Rio Olympic champions and current world No.1, fielded several key players from the previous China national teams including those competing in the Asian Championships, the FIVB Women’s U23 Championship and the FIVB World Grand Prix. Among them are hard-attacking Li Jing, Chen Liyi, Yang Zhou, Zheng Yixin, Yao Di, Zhang Xiaoya, Wang Yuanyuan, Shan Danna and Wang Na. The Chinese team are also strong with the likes of Zhang Changning and Gong Xiaoyu, both of whom had joined the gold-winning China national team at the last month’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

China proved too strong for the hapless Korea to mercilessly crush the smaller-built rivals in straight sets in their opening match, but struggled to beat Japan 3-2 in their second tussle. On Friday, China suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Kazakhstan. It seemed to be the China’s first loss to the fast-improving Kazakhs in several years, which saw the Chinese leave the competition hall with heads low in disappointment.

Kazakhstan made their mark in the Pool B preliminaries. After going down to Japan 1-3 in their first match, the Kazakhs powered past Korea in straight sets before stunning China 3-2 on Friday.

Saturday was the rest day and all eight participating teams will now resume their tense battle in the knockout quarter-finals on Sunday, with the Pool A winners taking on the Pool B fourth place and the Pool A second place playing the Pool B third position. The four winning teams will advance to the semi-finals, while the remaining four losers will be relegated to the 5th-8th classification round.

In the Sunday’s quarter-finals, Japan and Iran will battle it out at 12pm, followed by China against Taiwan at 2.30pm. Thailand will challenge Korea in the day’s third encounter at 6pm, while Vietnam will take on Kazakhstan at 8.30pm.

Rankings after completion of pool round-robin preliminaries
Pool A
1. Thailand 8 points
2. Vietnam 4 points
3. Chinese Taipei 5 points
4. Iran 1points

Pool B
1. Japan 7 points
2. China 6 points
3. Kazakhstan 5 points
4. Korea 0 point

Match Schedule
Sunday, September 18, 2016
12pm: 1B-Japan v 4A-Iran
2.30pm: 2B-China v 3A-Chinese Taipei
6pm: 1A-Thailand v 4B-Korea
8.30pm: 2A-Vietnam v 3B-Kazakhstan