Men's Volleyball AVC Cup 'Shock Defeat': Korea Suffers Tight Five-Set Loss to World No. 61 Thailand

*This content was translated by AI.

The South Korean Nam Ja-bae-gu (CEO) team suffered a shock defeat in their first match of the 2026 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Cup.

Coach Isanaye Ramirez's Lee Kkeu-neun (CEO) team lost to Thailand 2-3 (17-25, 26-24, 25-21, 18-25, 7-15) in the Group B first-round match of the tournament held on the 20th (local time) at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad, India.

Although there was a significant gap in world rankings, with Korea at No. 27 and Thailand at No. 61, Korea bowed its head after a painful defeat in the tournament's opening match. The Thai head coach is Park Ki-won.

In this tournament, 11 teams are divided into two groups for the group stage, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals to determine the champion. Korea will face Indonesia (No. 53), Oman (No. 72), and Qatar (No. 72) in sequence.

Korea surrendered the first set 17-25 and failed to maintain a 24-20 lead in the second set, allowing four consecutive points. However, they managed to tie the set score by scoring two consecutive points after reaching deuce, and then successfully took the lead by winning the third set 25-21.

However, Korea could not maintain the momentum from winning two sets. They lost the fourth set 18-25, causing them to waver again, and ultimately fell 7-15 in the final fifth set after struggling against Thailand's blocking due to consecutive errors.

Shin Ho-jin (Hyundai Capital) led the team with a team-high 21 points, and Im Jae-young (Korean Air) added 13 points. Im Sung-jin (Korean Air) and Choi Jun-hyeok (Korean Air), both with 11 points, also recorded double-digit scores. However, Korea was outmatched by Thailand in blocking (8-11) and serving (2-4), and committed 36 errors compared to Thailand's 22.

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*This content was translated by AI.