Vietnam women's volleyball team defeats Iran for the second consecutive time

Despite a poor start, coach Thai Thanh Tung's players came back to win 3-1 to qualify for the fifth place match in the 2015 Asian Championship.

Putting aside the sadness of yesterday's humiliating defeat to Taiwan, the Vietnamese girls entered the match against Iran with great determination to win a ticket to the 5th place match. However, that determination was met by an Iranian team that played explosively in the first set with the desire to avenge the previous defeat. Just like the scenario in the first meeting, the girls from the Middle East won 25-18.

The Vietnamese women's team is on the verge of winning its highest position at the Asian championship since 2005. Photo: CN.

But that was all they could do. The rest of the match witnessed the flexibility of coach Thai Thanh Tung's students. In contrast to the rotation of personnel in the setter position like yesterday, the main setter Linh Chi played the entire match. The attacking players achieved high scoring efficiency, especially the sub-attackers of captain Ngoc Hoa and Bui Nga. But the most notable was the appearance of Au Hong Nhung, strong attack, solid defense are what can be said about the main attacker from the Thong Tin LienViet Postbank military club. The Vietnamese team came back in all three sets, with the scores of 25-18, 25-22 and 25-18.

In this match, the two teams' stats were almost equal, with eight successful blocks, 55-56 attacks in Iran's favor, and 70%-67% ball control with Vietnam having the upper hand. However, the number of fouls was up to 30 (compared to 13), which could be considered a part of the reason for Iran's second consecutive defeat, in addition to the change in Vietnam's playing style.

With this victory, the Vietnamese women's team will enter the final match of the tournament for 5th place. The opponent of coach Thai Thanh Tung and his students is Japan - the team that easily defeated Kazakhstan with a score of 3-0. This is considered a difficult challenge because the team from the land of the rising sun will learn from the unexpected 2-3 loss to Vietnam in the group stage. If they win, our long-legged girls will have the best position since 2005.

According to VNE