“I’m grateful to the players for playing thinking volleyball”
After leading OK Financial Group to its first men’s professional volleyball championship in eight years, head coach Masashi Ogino spoke calmly. However, his voice trembled slightly. His thoughts and feelings about the achievement in unfamiliar Korea seemed to be extraordinary.
OK Financial Group swept Woori Card 3-0 (25-15 25-15 25-19) in three sets in the second round of the Dodram 2023-24 V-League Men’s Playoffs at the Sangroksu Gymnasium in Ansan on Friday.
After finishing third in the regular season, OK Financial Group defeated Hyundai Capital in the semi-finals, and then won two straight games against regular season runner-up Woori Card in the playoffs to advance to the championship game. This is the first time in eight seasons that OK Financial Group has reached the championship game after winning back-to-back championships in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
“The goal was to make the playoffs, but we went higher than that and achieved my personal goal,” said Ogino, who led the team to the championship game upon taking over the reins this season. “I knew the players were disappointed that OK Financial Group didn’t make the postseason last season, so I wanted to move them up a notch,” he said.
“It was the players’ hard work that allowed us to get this far,” he said, “and I’m grateful to the players and staff for their acceptance of me joining the team and introducing me to Japanese volleyball.”
Since his arrival at the helm of OK Financial Group, Ogino has emphasized the importance of “error-free volleyball. In that sense, the players fulfilled his wishes 100 percent. They only committed six errors. This was in contrast to Woori Card, who committed 20 errors and self-destructed.
“When you make an offensive error, you give yourself a point,” Ogino said. The most important thing is to put the ball on the court, connect, and then attack,” said 토토사이트 Ogino. “When an attacking error is made, the attacker has to apologize to the player who received it, the player who dug it, and the player who tossed it.”
“We only had six errors today, which is a first for us this season. That’s the first time that’s happened all season,” he said, adding, “I think they played volleyball the way they think they should.”
OK Financial Group will now face regular season champion Korean Air in the championship match. In the regular season, Korean Air won 4-2 in six meetings.
“Korean Air has won three consecutive titles,” said Ogino. “Technically, the pattern is similar, but they are a very good team in terms of individual ability,” Ogino said, adding, “We need to think about how we can win as a team rather than individually.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a championship game. I’m going to tell them to be grateful that we can play here and just play our volleyball that we’ve been playing all year,” he said. “If we do our best, the results will follow, and that’s what I expect.”