An all-Asian clash between Korea and Japan will highlight the second competition day of Volleyball Nations League 2022. In the last of four matches on Wednesday’s programme, the fourth-placed teams at last year’s VNL and Olympic Games will go head to head for another episode of their long-standing rivalry, set to start in USA’s Shreveport-Bossier City at 17:00 local time (01:00 GMT on Thursday morning).
VNL 2022
All-Asian clash to highlight VNL Wednesday
Korea and Japan will lock horns in their campaign opener in USA
Published 07:16, 01 Jun 2022
· Watch all VNL 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.
It will be the season’s opening match for both sides, as they embark on their fourth VNL campaigns.
The last time the women’s national teams of South Korea and Japan met they engaged in a pool stage five-set battle at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The home side came back from a set down twice in the match before their opponents claimed victory in an extended tie-breaker, capitalising mostly on their solid blocking performance.
In that match, Korea’s top scorer on 30 points was their star outside hitter Kim Yeon Koung, who is no longer a member of the squad. Sarina Koga, who is about to make her official debut as the new team captain of Japan, hammered out 27 points. While Japan failed to make it past the pool stage, Korea went on to reach the semifinals and finished their strong campaign in fourth place.
It was Japan, however, who finished fourth at VNL 2021. After their 10th place in 2018 and ninth place in 2019, they came back to win 12 of their 15 matches in the 2021 Preliminary Round and advanced to the semifinals as the team ranked third. The two players who topped the Preliminary Round charts for best receivers, Mayu Ishikawa and Sarina Koga are back this year to help Japan towards another successful campaign.
In their VNL 2021 encounter with Korea, Japan produced a clean-slate victory with Koga leading the scorers on 20 points. The Japanese lead 2-1 in their VNL head-to-heads with Korea, after shutting out their opponents in 2018, but losing in straight sets in 2019. In another relatively recent world-level encounter, Korea celebrated a four-set victory over hosts Japan at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball World Cup.
Korea’s best VNL result was their 12th place in the inaugural 2018 edition. In 2019 and 2021, they finished 15th, so they have plenty of room for improvement as they approach their fourth appearance in the competition.
The two Asian squads are in the company of six more teams in Shreveport-Bossier City this week. Pool 1 opened on Tuesday with Brazil defeating Germany by 3-1 (29-27, 23-25, 27-25, 25-21) and hosts USA delivering a 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-18) shutout of the Dominican Republic. The remaining two teams, Poland and Canada will get into action against each other on Wednesday.
Japan’s schedule for the rest of the week includes games against Germany on Thursday, against the Dominican Republic on Saturday and against USA on Sunday. Later in the VNL Preliminary Round, they will play in the pools in Quezon City and Calgary.
From Friday through Sunday, the Koreans will meet Germany, Poland and Canada in that order. In weeks 2 and 3, they will play in Brasilia and Sofia.
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