As Korea’s women’s volleyball continues to fall after reaching the quarterfinals of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Kim Yeon-kyung’s retirement from the national team, new coach Fernando Morales, who stepped in as a relief pitcher, is trying to catch two birds with one stone by improving performance and constitution. .

Coach Morales took the helm of the women’s national team following former coach Cesar Hernández, who stepped down due to poor performance. Unlike Coach Cesar, he is trying to accelerate the proper management of the national team as a full-time coach of the national team.

He is evaluated as a suitable person for the Korean women’s national team, which is in dire need of a generational change. His leadership was recognized by raising the Puerto Rican national team, whose power had been weakened due to a generational change, to the current world ranking of 16th. In particular, in the 2024 Paris Olympics preliminaries held in 2023, they achieved a clear improvement in their constitution, recording 4 wins and 3 losses.

Coach Morales attended a press conference held at the Seoul Olympic Parktel located in Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul at 10 am on the 25th and spoke about many things, including his determination and the future direction of the national team.

e said, “The reason I applied to the national team was the long history and culture of Korean volleyball. He has won a medal at the Olympics and has only reached the semifinals twice. “I applied because I could go to a glorious position,” he said, adding that he chose it because he saw the potential of Korean women’s volleyball.

Korean women’s volleyball is unable to fill the void left by Kim Yeon-kyung. She suffered the humiliation of losing all 12 matches in the 2023 Volleyball Nations League (VNL). Including the 2021 season, it is 27 consecutive losses. In a situation where her dependence on Kim Yeon-kyung was too great, the burden was too great for her juniors such as Kang So-hwi, Jeong Ji-yoon, and Park Jeong-ah to overcome.

Coach Morales is trying to turn crisis into opportunity. “To succeed in international competitions, all resources must be mobilized,” he said. It is difficult for a player to score 40 points alone. He needs to spread the scoring evenly. Korea is not a team with good physique. Attack low and fast and try to proceed quickly before the blocker takes over. You need to use blockers, spikers on both sides, and even a pipe rear attack. Everyone must participate in the attack. “You have to attack quickly so it’s difficult to predict,” he said, adding that he would like to try a variety of routes rather than just playing volleyball, which relies on one player. In other words, improvement in quality was declared.

He sees more advantages than disadvantages in Korean women’s volleyball. Coach Morales said, “The facilities at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village are good, so I can focus on training. The fundamentals are excellent regardless of position. You can play whatever you want. “We are introducing a new system, and the players are learning quickly,” he said, citing the well-established fundamentals of Korean players as a hopeful factor.

Coach Morales is currently training with 16 players at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village. The Korean women’s national team will play its first game in the first week of the VNL against China in Brazil on May 15. At a time when even qualification for the 2025 season’s VNL has become uncertain due to repeated losing streak, attention is being paid to whether Morales will turn around with improvement in quality.

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