Candidate → eliminated from the group league... Kim Yeon-kyung's struggle to win, a point to watch for 2024-25 season
Candidate → eliminated from the group league... Kim Yeon-kyung's struggle to win, a point to watch for 2024-25 season
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"Volleyball Empress" Kim Yeon-kyung (36) won the Women's Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the 2023-2024 V-League Awards held on April 8 and declared, "I will try to win again next season."
Whether Kim will retire or not began at the end of the 2022-23 season. As she rose to the top of the world and elevated Korea's women's volleyball status at international competitions, she hoped to come down from the top. However, she yielded the championship trophy to Korea Expressway Corporation in the 2022-23 season and Hyundai Engineering & Construction last season. She believed that leading Heungkuk Life to win the championship was the way to repay fans of volleyball. She also expressed her commitment to win the MVP award for the seventh time this season.
Kim is expected to have a more challenging race this season than the previous two. Kim Hae-ran, the eldest sister of Heungkuk Life Insurance and former national team libero, retired, while Lee Ju-ah, who was the main middle blocker, became a free agent and moved to IBK Industrial Bank.
Heungkuk Life Insurance replaced its off-season main setter with Lee Go-eun and sought to make changes to reduce its dependence on side attacks, which have been pointed out as weaknesses. However, it did not show as strong a performance as before in the 2024 Tongyeong-KOVO Cup, which ended on the 6th. It won 3-0 in the first group match against the invited team Aranmare (Japan), but lost 2-3 in the second game against Jeong Kwan-jang and 3-1 in the third game against IBK.
The new foreign player Tutku bourgeois Yuzgenk's attack power was below expectations. In three games, he scored 52 points and had an attack success rate of 30.77%. By attempting the rear attack 65, Heungkuk Life realized the "increase in central attack share" pursued by Heungkuk Life, but failed to show elaborate plays.
In order to fill Lee Ju-ah's vacancy, he recruited Chinese player Louis Lei Huang in the Asian quarter draft, but he also failed to show overwhelming performance with only five successful blocks. It is necessary to consider that it is still in the V-League, but it was difficult to get a positive evaluation because foreign players from other teams played under the same conditions.
In terms of domestic resources, Jung Yoon-joo showed a remarkable performance in her fourth year. However, it is hard to say that she is superior to Kim Mi-yeon in the same position.
Transfer player Libero Shin Yeon-kyung also failed to show 100% condition in this cup competition, and setter Lee Go-eun needs to work with existing strikers a little more.
She scored 73 points and had an attack success rate of 52.46 percent in three group matches. She ranked first in attack success rate and fourth in total.
Kim Yeon-koung is still strong, but it is true that foreign and domestic players' power seems to be lower than in the previous two seasons. Heungkuk Life has already confirmed that Kim Yeon-koung's skills can make it to the top of the regular league, but in the short term, he can reach the top only by reducing his dependence on certain players.
At this year's Cup championship, V-League defending champion Hyundai Engineering & Construction won, while third-ranked Jeong Kwan-jang also made it to the finals. GS Caltex, whose ace Kang So-hwi moved to Korea Expressway Corporation and was expected to see its offense decline, also advanced to the semifinals, showing stronger-than-expected performance. IBK, which strengthened its player depth by recruiting FA big fish in two consecutive stoves recently, also proved its strength in the semifinals. 토토사이트
Kim Yeon-koung's challenge to win the championship has become more difficult than before. As such, attention is focusing on his moves in the V-League during the 2024-25 season.