Woori Card coach Shin Young-cheol “Admit to power drop…push for offensive lineup in upcoming season”
“I accept that my power is down. That’s why we’re going to be aggressive in the upcoming season.”
Shin Young-cheol, head coach of the men’s professional volleyball team Woori Card, said after their match against Samsung Fire at the ‘2023 Danyang Preseason Professional Volleyball Invitational’ at the Danyang National Sports Center in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea on the 19th.
The match between Samsung Fire and Woori Card drew attention as a matchup that could foreshadow the upcoming season. Samsung Fire’s middle blocker Kim Jun-woo is the only player who hasn’t been called up to the national team. In addition, foreign players Matei Kok (Woori Card) and Yosubani (Samsung Fire), and Asian quarters Issei Otake (Woori Card) and Eddie (Samsung Fire) were all available.
The match, which was scheduled to be played in four sets regardless of the outcome, was expected to be a tightly contested affair, but ended in a 3-1 (20-25 25-23 25-16 25-23) victory for Samsung Fire. Samsung Fire’s Yosubani showed off her offensive prowess as the No. 1 player in the foreign player tryout, while Park Sung-jin, the 2023 KOVO Cup MIP (Most Improved Player), came off the bench to make an impact. Eddie played as both an outside spiker and middle blocker, but didn’t have much to show for it.
Woori Card head coach Shin Young-cheol experimented with different combinations, most notably using Otake as an outside spiker when it looked like he would be utilized as a middle blocker. Two of the three wing spots were filled by foreigners, with Matei Kok filling the outside hitter spot. The remaining spot was expected to be fiercely contested by native players.
“I’m having a headache trying to figure out how to make a better combination,” Shin said after the game. “My original plan was to use Otake as a middle blocker and Matei Kok as an outside hitter, but Matei Kok is not good at outside hitter, so I think I’ll give Matei Kok the left flank and use Otake on the right.”
We have a lot of quality wing resources in our card right now. Na Kyung-bok (Ministry of Defense) became a free agent after last season and moved to KB Insurance, but they brought in Song Myung-geun via a trade with OK Financial Group. The team also lost setter Hwang Seung-bin to KB Insurance and brought in outside hitter Han Sung-jeong. Then there’s Kim Ji-han, who played both outside hitter and outside hitter after being traded from KEPCO last year.먹튀검증
Shin’s current plan is to use Otake as an outside hitter with Apojit, Matej Kok, and Kim Ji-han as the main outside hitters. “We admit that our power is not as good as other teams. So, rather than a defensive lineup that focuses on receiving, we will play an offensive lineup that emphasizes serving, blocking height, and offense.” “A team with less power should always be aggressive and push the opponent. Only then do we have a chance to win.” It will be interesting to see what kind of magic Shin, who has transformed the team’s composition every season with unconventional trades, will work in the rest of the season.