Panasonic Panthers head coach Laurent Tilly, who just finished participating in the Cobo Cup in the men’s professional volleyball tournament, pointed out the weakness of Korean volleyball in reception.
Tilly’s Panasonic team was eliminated from the men’s semifinals of the 2023 Gumi Dodram Cup Professional Volleyball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon with a 2-3 set loss to the OK Financial Group at Park Jung-hee Gymnasium in Gumi, Gyeongbuk.
Panasonic, which had played a full-set match against Samsung Fire the day before, showed stamina problems in the last five sets and lost the match.
Coach Tillie expressed his disappointment in the loss, saying in a post-match interview, “I feel like the players suddenly stopped playing in the last five sets, which is very disappointing. We had the wrong attitude from 0-0 in the fifth set.”
“It’s wrong to start like you’ve already lost when there’s still a match to play. I think it’s a learning process for young players.”
Tilly was pleased with the tournament itself. “The tournament was well organized and the level of play was high. We played at a high level yesterday as well,” he said, adding, “We would love to come back if they call us.”
“Their strength is that they have a lot of energy and a lot of fight,” said Tilley, who faced Korean V-League teams in the tournament.
“They give their best when they cover and when they defend. They always jump to the max when they hit the ball or when they block. Their blocking and defense is at a high level.”
As for the Koreans’ weaknesses, Tillie cited reception anxiety and frequent errors. “If I had to name a weakness, it would be our reception, which is not consistent and comes and goes.
They shook the Koreans with their serve (in the qualifiers),” he said, “and they try to play fast, so they make mistakes in the middle of that.”
When asked to compare the quality of the Korean teams to the Japanese V-League teams he experienced, Tilley said they were in the middle of the pack.
“It’s hard to say because the teams in the tournament are not the best,” he said, “but there are some very high-level teams in Japan like Suntory and Nagoya, but I think the Korean V-League teams can compete with the mid-level teams in the Japanese league.” 토토사이트
