Ahead of the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will be held in September 2023, a prelude will be held. The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Volleyball Nations League (VNL), which opens on the 30th, is expected to become more intense.
The 5th VNL curtain rises this year. The previous World Grand Prix competition was replaced by VNL from 2018, and four competitions were held except for the cancellation of the 2019 competition due to Corona 19. Since the establishment of the VNL, the United States has won the championship three times in a row, and Italy lifted the first VNL championship last year.
A total of 16 teams compete this year. Each team is divided into a core team and a challenge team. 11 teams including Korea, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States are the core teams. Five teams, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Dominican Republic, and Poland, are the challenge teams. The lowest ranked team among the challenging teams is relegated to the Challenger Cup, and the winner of this year’s Challenger Cup gets the right to participate in next year’s VNL. Last year, Korea also finished bottom out of 16 teams, but avoided relegation because they belonged to the core team. Instead, Belgium, which ranked last among the challengers, was relegated, and Croatia will be on the VNL stage this year.
Thirteen teams, excluding Bulgaria, Canada (2 more times) and Croatia (0 times), among the teams participating in the VNL this time, participated in the VNL 4 times in a row. The same goes for Korea. However, Korea’s best result in this tournament is 12th. Poland and the Dominican Republic are challenging teams, but they are highly competitive and are consistently producing good results.
The qualifying process is the same as last year. The game is divided into 1st to 3rd weeks, and 8 teams for each week compete in different locations. Matches will be held sequentially in Turkey Antalya and Nagoya, Japan in Week 1, Hong Kong and Brasilia, Brazil in Week 2, and Suwon, Korea and Bangkok, Thailand in Week 3. After visiting Turkey and Brazil, Korea returns to Korea and finishes the VNL qualifiers at home. The final stage, which starts with the quarterfinal tournament, was set to Arlington, USA.
The top 8 teams through the preliminaries get tickets to the finals. The top 7 teams, excluding the final host United States, will advance to the tournament. Depending on the preliminary rankings, the quarterfinals will be completed in a cross tournament. Only 10 teams have made it to the final stage in the last 4 tournaments. The United States, Brazil, Turkey (more than 4 times), China (3 times), Serbia, Italy, Japan (more than 2 times), the Netherlands, Thailand and Poland (more than 1 time) are applicable.
VNL usually starts at the end of May. Players belonging to major European club teams, whose season ends in May, have no choice but to put a lot of pressure on them. Each national team used to compete in the VNL by forming a team mainly of young players who had little opportunity, excluding the ace players. As a result, FIVB gave ranking points to VNL after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and the importance of ranking increased as the criteria for selecting teams to qualify for the Paris Olympics were changed. From this point on, each team started building the best members of VNL.
Moreover, in September this year, the Olympic qualifiers will be held. Here, six tickets to the Paris Olympics are at stake. A total of 24 teams will participate in the Olympic qualifiers. Among the VNL participating teams, 15 teams, excluding Croatia, are included. Korea, placed in Group C of the Olympic qualifiers, will compete against Poland, Italy, the United States, Germany, Thailand, Colombia and Slovenia. The top two teams will be awarded Olympic tickets.
Korea also competes against the US, Thailand, and Poland in the VNL. It is a great opportunity to analyze the opposing team and compete directly. Other teams are in the same situation. VNL, the first international competition of this year, is a place where players can understand each team’s player composition, team color, and strengths and weaknesses.
Korea has entered its second season with César after the Tokyo Olympics. The current FIVB ranking is 23rd. It is a determination to accumulate as many wins as possible in the VNL with speed as a weapon, and to show more complete performance and results in the Asian Championship, Olympic qualifiers, and Hangzhou Asian Games.토토사이트
Korea’s goal is to qualify for the fourth consecutive Olympics. However, in terms of objective power, the wall of reality seems high. First of all, I would like to get a hint to find a breakthrough through the first competition, VNL.
