Bangkok Glass ousted in straight sets by VakifBank Istanbul
Bangkok Glass continued their losing streak at the 2016 FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, the Philippines on Friday after going down 19-25 23-25 18-25 to Turkey’s VakifBank Istanbul in their last Pool B encounter.
The 2013 champions were hardly bothered by the Thai club’s occasional forays and instead imposed discipline on defence and firepower, making 57 attacks compared to 33 by Bangkok Glass.
Vakifbank Istanbul will thus join unbeaten Volero Zurich in the semi-finals from Pool B, facing the top team from Pool A in the semi-finals. Bangkok Glass, which beat Japan’s Hisamitsu Springs in the final showdown of the last year’s Asian Women’s Club Championship to reign supreme for the first time, will be relegated to the 5th-8th classification round.
Lonneke Sloetjes score 17 points for VakifBank, which also got a big boost from Godze Kirdar who accounted for 11 markers.
Losing straight sets to Swiss champions Velero Zurich and Hisamitsu Springs Kobe in their first two matches, Bangkok Glass, which relied on Wilavan Apinyapong’s 14-point output, finished group stage fourth in Pool B.
After the match, VakifBank Istanbul coach Giovanni Guidetti complimented Bangkok Glass, as the Thai club challenged them in the straight-set match in the FIVB Volleyball Women's Club World Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday.
Giovanni Guidetti, VakifBank Istanbul coach, said, “Every time I play against a team from Thailand, I'm always fascinated with the way they can play volleyball at this level without having much height. They play incredible volleyball and they are a good example of using technique disregarding their height.
“I really used all 14 players and everybody contributed, so I’m very happy about it. In the second set, their reception was pretty good. It was very difficult to stop them, they're very strong and very complicated, they used a lot of combination and they were very fast.
“It will be an amazing game tomorrow, because Eczacibasi are a very phenomenal team. But I think VakifBank are a very strong team as well in high level of volleyball. It's all about details”
VakifBank Istanbul captain Gozde Kirdar said, “We played great, and they played great also. It was a very interesting game than European volleyball. In the second set, we had some reception problems, but we still did a good job.
“We have very important game tomorrow against Eczacibasi. If we want to be the champions, we have to beat them. We lost yesterday, but tomorrow is the semi-finals so we have to beat them. They know us and we know them too very well because we're always playing with each other. They are a strong team and they play very good but we also think we play very good as well. It's about who wants to go to the finals more.”
Bangkok Glass head coach Kittipong Pornchartyingcheep said, “It was a very good game. I think everybody in Bangkok Glass did well. Everybody played really well on the second set.
“I think everybody can help but I had a technique, a tactic that I think I will use again for the next match.”
Bangkok Glass captain Pleumjit Thinkaow said, “We had fun. But they are strong, sometimes fast, so it was very difficult. We learned a lot about the game and we wish them luck in the next round.”
