The opening match of the Women's Volleyball World League is about to start. According to the schedule, the first match will come from Bulgaria and the Netherlands in Turkey. In this game, although there are no active Chinese women's volleyball players to participate, there is a former national player Wang Ziling, who will become the second referee of the opening game of the World League, and the first referee of the German Ibaminonda blew the whistle of the 24th World League.
Bulgaria and the Netherlands have both announced their names of 14 players. The Netherlands is led by Bouygis and Prak, and the specific lineup is Buygis, Konolema, Jasper, Marin, secondary attackers Bayens, Lohois, and Timmerman, setter Van Allen, Dijekoma, Bongarc, and Plack, Dembrink and libero Kniepp and Reinck.
Bulgaria is Yordanova, Dudova and others. In terms of overall strength, the Netherlands are definitely superior and should be able to win the game. For the Netherlands, the World League is their last chance to qualify for the Olympics, so they must try to win as much as possible, earn points and move up the world rankings.
As the opponent of the Chinese women's volleyball team, the South Korean team put down harsh words before leaving for Brazil, and the new coach Morales stressed that it is necessary to end the shame of 27 consecutive defeats in the World League. Interestingly, the first opponent of the South Korean World League is the powerful Chinese women's volleyball team, I am afraid that they will not only not be able to end the 27th consecutive defeat, but will also be given the 28th consecutive defeat!
The South Korean women's volleyball team led by Kim Jung-kyung and Liang Hyo-jin broke into the semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics and became the best result in Asia at that time, but in the Paris cycle, with the retirement of veterans, the Korean women's volleyball team experienced a faulty decline, not only lost all 24 games in the 22nd and 23rd World League tournaments, but also lost all 7 games in the Olympic qualifying tournament, and changed the world ranking from 12th to 40th now, and has lost the qualification to participate in the Paris Olympics.
In this battle between China and South Korea, in addition to whether South Korea can end its 27-game losing streak is the highlight, there are three other highlights. The first highlight is the international debut of the veteran Zhang Changning's comeback. After the National Games, Zhang Changning chose to semi-retire, and did not return to the field until the later stage of the Volleyball Super League, and the match against South Korea was his debut in the international competition after 2 years.
The second point to watch is whether the starting lineup changes. Wu Mengjie performed well in both the Olympic Championships and the Asian Games last year, and many fans are expecting her to replace Wang Yunrui as the starter. After a period of cooperation training, I don't know if Wu Mengjie's back-row support ability meets Cai Bin's requirements? In addition, in the previous training, Wang Yunrui also appeared in the second position, I wonder if Cai Bin will use this new tactic?
The third attraction is the tactics of the whole team. With the return of veteran players one after another, the bench depth of the Chinese women's volleyball team has been strengthened and improved, which has also brought new problems to coach Cai Bin. The return of veterans and the entry of rookies have certainly improved the strength of the team, but they will also test Cai Bin's on-the-spot command and whether to adjust his playing style.