And with this post, we are now caught up and can do 1 per week until the beginning of the tournament. I think Tuesdays will be a good day for those pieces. Day after new NCAA polls, and there’s not typically a match to cover that early in the week. Here’s the rundown:
Egypt
Japan
Iran
Netherlands
South Korea
Finland
Canada
Italy
Argentina
Serbia
Russia
France
Brazil
Germany
Bulgaria
Cuba
USA
Poland
This piece marks the first on a team who played in last year’s World League and didn’t lose their spot (Japan played last year and finished bottom-2, but are back because the tournament has expanded to 18 teams for the first time). But it’s really only by the skin of their teeth that that’s true for the Korean team. This is not a very strong program. In last year’s 16-team formulation of the World League, they were 14th, meaning they were the worst team not forced to defend their position. They were forced to defend their position after a dead-last finish in the 2010 World League, and did so successfully, defeating Japan in the qualifier.
The team are known simply as “Korea” (trigram KOR) in FIVB records, as it does not appear that North Korea (or Korea DPR) field a national volleyball team, even though the game is played there. The South Korea team’s record in top-level international tournaments is spotty and unremarkable. They haven’t played at the Olympics since the Syndey Games of 2000, though that appearance was at the tailend of five consecutive qualifications. Qualification for the London Games ended early for the Koreans, as they could only claim victories over the lowly Venezuela and Puerto Rico teams, as well as a minor upset over China. That wasn’t going to be good enough.
Their world championships record is pretty meager, too. They didn’t qualify in 2010 nor in 2002, and they placed a paltry 17th in 2006. While 2011 actually marked the first time in 30 years that they had not played the World Cup, they’ve never finished higher than 5th there (remember it’s a 12-team event, so 5th isn’t so fantastic).
All this said, they’ve been remarkably successful at Asia-only events. This year marks the 17th edition of the AVC Asian Championships, and you know how many medals South Korea have in the first 16 events? Fifteen, including four golds. A 1997 fifth place was the only time they finished lower than 3rd. They’ve had similar successes at the Asian Games (pretty much like the Olympics, but restricted to Asia…every continent has something equivalent), sitting out the first Asian Games volleyball tournament and taking fifth place in the second, but earning a medal at each and every one since, with three golds.
KOVO, the Korean federation, run the V-League, the country’s pro volleyball league. There’s only 5 teams in it (6 on the women’s side) but it looks like most if not all the members of the national team play in the V-League. Setter Young-min Kwon (or is it Kwon Young-Min… I genuinely can’t keep it straight with transliterated Asian names) is noted as the team’s floor captain. Outside hitter Sung-min Moon might be the team’s best scorer, and is one of the few players on the team to have played professionally outside Korea at any time in his career (he has also played in leagues in Germany and Turkey). I tried to find some information on the team’s head coach Ki-Woon Park, and all I found was him complimenting the Iran team.
If this piece seems skimpy, it’s because it is. There’s not a lot of information available on this team.
So are we looking at a winner?
Honestly I’ll be surprised if they’re not forced to play the 2014 qualifiers. It’ll probably be them and Iran (since Iran are somehow in Pool B rather than Pool C and will face much more difficult competition than they probably deserve to). Nothing I’ve turned up makes it seem like this is a team we need to pay much attention to. So, chances are, I’m probably not.
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