"I don't think we can do it right now."
Women's volleyball coach Kim Ho-cheol of IBK, who led Hyundai Capital in its heyday and served as head coach of the men's national team, doesn't mince words.
The team held a media day at the Rivera Hotel in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday ahead of the start of the 2023-2024 Dodram V League season. While there was a lot of excitement and hope for the new season, there was also a solemnity as everyone realized their responsibilities for the crisis in Korean volleyball.
Both the men's and women's national volleyball teams suffered 'no medals' at the recent Hangzhou Asian Games, and the women's team, once a powerhouse in Asia, is in dire straits after golden generation players Kim Yeon-kyung, Kim Soo-ji, and Yang Hyo-jin retired from the national team. The team has lost 27 consecutive matches in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) and failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics with a seven-match losing streak. And at the Asian Games, they hung their heads in shame as they finished with just their second 'no-medal' in 17 years. Men's volleyball is facing the same crisis, and the decline in international competitiveness could directly affect the existence of the V-League and Korean volleyball as a whole.
When asked about the national team's recent performance at the media day, Kim Ho-cheol treaded carefully. "I know it's a sensitive issue, but if I were to give my opinion, I think it will be difficult to recover from the current state," Kim said bitterly, "Unless we change the system problems, we can expect a continued slump."
While he didn't elaborate, Kim did offer suggestions to his peers and junior managers. "I would like the coaches to have a head-to-head discussion on what they should do not only for the management of their own teams, but also for the future of Korean volleyball in general," he said.
Italian coach Marcello Avondanza was asked the same question and said, "Korean volleyball has the conditions to be a champion," but added, "It would take too long to talk about it. But one of the ways is to increase the number of foreigners in the V-League," he suggested. Domestic players have a negative reaction to increasing the foreign player quota for reasons such as playing opportunities, but in order to raise the level of the league itself, 카지노사이트킴 it is suggested that talented foreign players should be actively recruited to form a competitive structure.
