Professional volleyball Korean Air and OK Financial Group will clash for the 2023-2024 V-League Men’s Championship. 토토사이트
Korean Air, which is ranked first in the regular league, and OK Financial Group, which has won three consecutive semi-playoffs and playoffs, will play the first round of the championship game of the three-win game in five games at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon on the 29th.
The first and second rounds will take place at Korean Air’s home Incheon on April 29 and 31, while the third and fourth rounds will take place at OK Financial Group’s home Ansan Sangnoksu Gymnasium on April 2 and 4. If the two teams face off with two wins and two losses, the last and fifth round will take place in Incheon on April 6.
Korean Air, which was unstable, is still a strong team
If Korean Air wins the championship match, it will achieve an integrated victory for four consecutive seasons (No. 1 in the regular league, winning the championship match).
Korean Air has been dominating the league as the strongest team by winning the combined title for three consecutive seasons until last season, but this season had many twists and turns. Jung Ji-seok has been sidelined for more than a month since the opening due to back injury, while Lincoln Williams, a foreign striker, was also injured.
Murad Khan, the newly recruited foreign player, was also not satisfied, showing ups and downs. However, under the seasoned distribution of balls by setter Han, native players such as Lim Dong-hyuk, Jeong Han-yong, Kwak Seung-seok and Kim Min-jae performed evenly and competed for the title.
Korean Air, which had been chasing Woori Card for the most part throughout the season, finished first in second place. However, as Woori Card was defeated by Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance 2-3 in the final regular league match, it dramatically overturned the score difference by one point and took the top spot.
Although he exposed several weaknesses and anxiety, he was able to reorganize as he advanced to the championship game as the No. 1 player in the regular league.
Ahead of the championship match, Korean Air has thrown another shot at winning the title. It dispatched Murad to recruit Maksim Zigarov (registered as Maksim), a former member of the Russian national team. Although Korean Air lacks time to play together with its fellow players, if it shows performance that meets expectations, Korean Air will likely strengthen its capacity.
OK Financial Group, which finished the regular league in third place, beat Hyundai Capital in the semi-playoff and Woori Card in the playoffs in order to reach the championship game for the first time in eight years since the 2015-2016 season.
OK Financial Group, which failed to advance to the post season last season, left the baton to Coach Ogino. Ogino, the first Japanese coach in the V-League, emphasized the players’ basic skills and teamwork.
In order to reduce the error, he ordered a floater serve instead of a strong spike serve, and taught that the opponent’s defense position should be identified and paint should be used appropriately rather than hitting hard.
There were question marks over the manager’s volleyball match. In the third round of the regular season, he lost all six games and fell to a lower rank. However, he made a surprise come-from-behind victory by winning all six games in the fourth round, and continued his popularity in the spring volleyball tournament to advance to the championship match.
OK Financial Group has proven “volleyball without any mistakes” in numbers. The number of mistakes this season is the lowest among the seven men’s teams with 650. In particular, in the second playoff game against Woori Card, the team recorded at least six errors in a single game this season.
In addition, Ogiino reduced his dependence on Leonardo Leiva Martinez (registered name Leo) in the postseason and evenly used native strikers such as Shin Ho-jin and Song Hee-chae, creating a team with as strong players as Korean Air.
Attention is focusing on whether Ogiino, who will face Korean Air coach Tommy Tilikainen, who is trying to win the championship for three consecutive seasons after taking office, will show his “magic” of winning the championship game in his first season.