Thai women's volleyball team makes miracle

Against the 12th ranked Canadian team in the world, the Thai volleyball girls played resiliently, gaining important points to successfully stay in the FIVB Nations League (VNL).

Thailand (red shirt) celebrates in the match against Canada - Photo: FIVB

Thailand entered the "final" match with the Canadian women's volleyball team on the morning of July 14. This was a crucial match for the Thai women's volleyball team, as they were at the bottom of the VNL table in the 2025 season at that time.

Before this match, Thailand had lost 2 consecutive matches against Germany and Dominican Republic. After 11 rounds, they only won 1 match, along with 9 wins in VNL 2025.

Meanwhile, South Korea surprisingly won 2 games against Bulgaria (losing 2-3 in the end), thereby surpassing and pushing Thailand to the bottom of the table after the 11th round. In the 12th round, South Korea lost 0-3 to France, lighting up a small opportunity for Thailand, the team that entered the field later in the final round.

Both Asian teams have 1 win this season, and the same number of points at 5. Before the final match, Thailand was behind Korea in the secondary index - with only 9 wins compared to 11 wins of the opponent.

Launched in 2018, VNL initially did not apply relegation to "core teams" like Thailand. But from the 2025 season, the tournament expanded to 18 teams with a rule that the bottom team will definitely be relegated.

Thailand is therefore under a lot of pressure, they play much worse than every year, continuously losing every time they face strong teams. If they are eliminated from VNL, it will be a painful blow for Thailand, because Thai women's volleyball has shown for many years that their level is close to the world level.

And then in the final match, Thailand made a miracle. They won 25-17 in the first game, before losing 23-25, 28-30 in the next two games.

With such a narrow defeat, the Thai volleyball girls seemed to have collapsed. If they had lost the 4th game, they would have definitely finished below Korea.

But then at the crucial moment, Coach Kiattipong's students rose up and won a dramatic 25-23 victory in the fourth game.

Thailand lost 13-15 in the 5th game, thereby accepting a 2-3 defeat in the end. But no matter, this result still brought Thailand 1 match point.

In the end, Thailand had the same 1 win and 11 wins as Korea, but they had more match points (6 vs. 5), thereby spectacularly surpassing their opponents.

Thus, Korea will be eliminated from the VNL 2026 season, while Thailand will continue to stay in the world-class playground.

Except for the World Championship, VNL is considered the biggest tournament in the volleyball system. Being able to stay in this annual playground is very meaningful for Thai girls in setting the goal of reaching world class.

VNL bases its rankings on the number of wins, then match points, win/loss ratio, then head-to-head...

A 3-0 or 3-1 win will earn three points. A 3-2 win will earn two points, while a 2-3 loss will earn one point. In this tournament, Thailand earned six points thanks to a 3-1 win over France, and three 2-3 losses to Japan, Bulgaria and Canada.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bong-chuyen-nu-thai-lan-lam-nen-dieu-ky-dieu-20250714104059708.htm