Thailand and Indonesia qualify for final round

Win Tun Oo of Myanmar tries to penetrate Thailand's solid blocking.

Hosts Thailand and Indonesia qualified for the final round of the 2014 FIVB World Volleyball Championship Qualification Asian Zone after brushing off their respective rivals with two successive wins in the Southeast Asian Zonal clash on Thursday.

In a rematch of the 2012 Southeast Asian Games final showdown, Thailand and Indonesia were due to take on each other later yesterday. The result of the encounter in the three-day competition is only academic as both sides have already made the cut for the final round in September.

Indonesia struggled to beat Myanmar 3-2 and Thailand came back to outplay Vietnam 3-1 in their opening matches on Wednesday. The following day, Indonesia thrashed Vietnam 25-18 25-16 25-19, while the hosts continued their unbeaten run by outclassing Myanmar 25-16 25-15 25-19.

Indonesia bagged five points and Thailand collected six points, while Myanmar had one point from the 2-3 loss to Indonesia and Vietnam are without a point.

Thailand, ranked No 48 in the world after an impressive fourth place in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, started strongly, with hard-hitters Jirayu Raksakaew and Kittikun Sriutthawong puncturing the Myanmar defence with their attacks, to take a commanding 13-9 lead in the opener.

The visitors tried to regain their composure but failed. The poor first-ball reception, unforced attacking and serving errors contributed to their misery. Thailand widened the gap to 18-11 and marched to win the first set 25-16.

Thailand took command in the second set to lead 21-13, thanks to Jirayu's spectacular spikes and solid blocking from Teerasak Nakprasong and Kittikun. The inexperienced Myanmar team caved in quickly at 25-15 but put up a fight in the third before losing 25-19.

Thailand's head coach Monchai Suphajirakun said: "We next play Indonesia. It's not easy to beat them. Indonesia played with plenty of variety. They are fast in spiking and their serves are powerful. Their tactics and technique are totally different from Myanmar. To match them well, we have to go back and study the tapes. We will try to come up with good serves to foil their attack.

"Kittikun is in top form, while Jirayu is a force to be reckoned with. The other players in the team also performed well. It should be a thrilling match against our old foes. We beat them for the Southeast Asian Games title in front of their fans in Palembang two years ago," he added.

The other match saw in-form Indonesia send Vietnam packing 25-18 25-16 25-19.

Latest stories in this category

• Thailand and Indonesia qualify for final round


• Hosts Thailand and Indonesia qualified for the..


• Men's spikers take step closer to World C'ships


• Federer's very early exit from Wimbledon

We Recommend

• Stringent US checks pose image problem for Thailand


• A foreign news agency recently reported that the..


• Thailand fully withdrawn from FATF's Public..


• Myanmar government and Parliament split over..

Comments conditions

Users are solely responsible for their comments.We reserve the right to remove any comment and revoke posting rights for any reason withou prior notice.

Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/06/29/thailand-and-indonesia-qualify-for-final-round/