Asian champions Thailand advanced to the second stage of the Women’s World Volleyball Championship for the first time yesterday, despite a straight-sets defeat to Germany.
Thailand crashed to a 25-14, 25-15, 25-10 defeat, finishing the group with two wins against three defeats and securing a top four place — above Croatia and Kazakhstan — in the six-team Group C round robin in Matsumoto, Japan.
They failed to survive the first round of the worlds in 1998 and 2002.
PHOTO: EPA
“At the start of the game, we expected to do better than this. Our stress and anxiety came from our opponents who were serving great and making problems for our players,” Thailand coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai said.
“We didn’t receive well, so that made problems in our combination play and prevented us from playing as fast as we usually do. All my players moved slow today, so we couldn’t play our best,” -Radchatagriengkai said.
Captain Wilavan Apinyapong said: “We played very badly in all aspects, so we must think about this and consider all the bad things we did today. Today, we played very slowly.”
PHOTO: EPA
“We tried to solve the problem, but it was difficult for us, because Germany were good at blocking and good in attack,” she added.
In Group A, 2006 bronze medalists Serbia reached the next round along with Japan, Poland and Peru, while Beijing Olympic gold medalists Brazil survived from Group B, as did the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Italy.
The US, Germany and Thailand qualified from Group C, and in Group D, defending champions Russia, South Korea, Turkey and China took their places in the next round.
Peru outclassed Costa Rica 25-18, 25-18, 32-34, 25-19 and former European champions Poland whipped Algeria 25-17, 25-16, 25-12 to send the two losers out of the championship.
The Netherlands saw off Puerto Rico 25-12, 25-13, 25-16, while the Czech Republic sent Kenya to the bottom with a 25-20, 25-15, 25-20 win.
Croatia defeated Kazakhstan 25-19, 25-17, 25-18 and then waited for the outcome of the match between the US and three-time former -champions Cuba.
South Korea edged past Turkey 16-25, 25-21, 25-21, 19-25, 15-13 to finish with a 4-1 win-loss record, while the Dominican Republic gained some consolation from a defeat of Canada 21-25, 28-26, 25-11, 25-20.
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