On August 13, the 2022 Men's Volleyball Asian Cup started the semi-final competition in Fo Thong Province, Thailand, and the Chinese men's volleyball team and the South Korean team dueled. In the end, the two sides experienced a five-set battle, the Chinese team was tied in the case of two backwards, and finally won the decider, the big score was reversed 3-2, thrilling to advance to the final, the five sets scored 20-25, 25-17, 32-34, 29-27, 17-15. The Chinese team that advanced to the final will compete with Japan for the final title, which swept Bahrain 3-0 in the semi-finals.
In this Asian Cup, the Chinese men's volleyball team is the main force to play, the purpose is to train troops for the World Championships. In the group stage, the Chinese team defeated Chinese Taipei and Bahrain in two consecutive 3-1 consecutive matches to advance to the quarterfinals. In the second stage of the rematch, the Chinese team swept Pakistan 3-0, defeated the Iranian national youth team 3-1, and once again advanced to the top four of the Asian Cup. In particular, the embarrassing history of ending a decade of defeat against the Iranian men's volleyball team.
In this semi-final, the Chinese men's volleyball team played against the South Korean team, which is also the second time that the two teams have met in the semi-final of the Asian Cup after a gap of 14 years. In this game, the Chinese team sent the main lineup, starting the main attack: Zhang Jingyin, Yu Yuantai, the secondary attack: Li Yongzhen, Peng Shikun, the receiver: Zhang Guanhua, the second pass: Yu Yaochen, the free man: Yang Yiming.
In the first set, the Chinese team was behind from the beginning, 5-8 for the first technical suspension, 14-16 for the second technical timeout, and then the Chinese team once chased the score to 17-17 draw, but suddenly lost power, and finally lost the first set 20-25, and the big score was 0-1 behind. In the second set, the Chinese team strengthened its defensive and offensive firepower, always maintained the lead, and gradually widened the gap between the scores, and finally won 25-17 smoothly, and the big score was tied 1-1. In the third set, the two teams fell into a tug-of-war, and played a big score in the last moment, the Chinese team failed to seize many inning point offensive opportunities, and finally lost 32-24, and the South Korean team led 2-1.
In the crucial fourth set, the Chinese team played proactively, leading 8-7 into the first technical suspension, but in the middle of the game, it was overtaken by South Korea and entered the second technical suspension 16-15. After that, the South Korean team once led 23-21, and the Chinese team withstood the pressure and scored 2 consecutive points to tie. After that, although the South Korean team took the lead in obtaining the match point opportunity 24-23, the Chinese team withstood the pressure, leveled, and even won the opportunity to counter the set point three times, seized the opportunity in the last blow, won the thrill of 29-27, and chased the big score to 2-2 draw, and the two sides entered the decisive game.
After the start of the decider, the Chinese team has been taking a slight lead in the score, relying on Yu Yaochen's blocking at a critical moment to lead 8-7 into the technical timeout. Although it was surpassed by the South Korean team by 2 consecutive points after starting over, it then scored three consecutive points with the net to take an 11-9 lead, forcing the South Korean team to call a timeout. After that, the South Korean team took the lead in 14-13 to get the match point opportunity, but the Chinese team equalized with Peng Shikun's slam, and then the South Korean team slammed the ball off the net, and the Chinese team won the match point opportunity 15-14, but the South Korean team slammed the Chinese team to equalize. After that, the Chinese team attacked and scored the serve, won 17-15, won 3-2 with a big score, and advanced to the final, and will play a decisive battle with Japan tomorrow to impact the fifth Asian Cup.