Indonesia, which captured the first leg title on home soil last week, made it two on the trot in the 2023 Southeast Asian Men’s Volleyball League (SEA V. League) following their clean sweep in the round-robin Second Leg at the City of Santa Rosa Multi-Purpose Complex in Laguna in Philippines on Sunday.
World No.68 Indonesia got their Second Leg campaign in Philippines off to a flying start after 3-1 demolition of Vietnam in their opening match on Friday. Their second encounter the following day saw Indonesia, defending and three-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medallists, pull off stunning 3-0 win against hosts Philippines for two consecutive victories in the tournament.
On Sunday, the final day of the three-day competition, Indonesia beat the Thailand’s second string with a terrific comeback 3-2 win. In the First Leg earlier, the Indonesians routed Thailand’s first-team squad 3-1 in in their last match to claim the eventual title on home soil, but in the Second Leg, the AVC Challenge Cup winners had a commitment to contest the 2023 FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup in Doha, Qatar, allowing the second string to do their duty.
Against Thailand in their last encounter on Sunday, Indonesia fielded the formidable lineup which had beaten the Thailand’s first-team squad in the First Leg last week. They included Hendra Kurniawan, Fahri Septian Putratama and Farhan Halim, three of them with individual awards to their names including Fahri, who landed the MVP title.
However, though training together as a newly-formed teams just around 5-7 days ahead of their departure for the Second Leg in Philippines, the Thailand’s second string, powered by a few experienced seniors and young stars including Jakkrit Thanomnoi, Jakkrit Chantrai and Supakorn Jenthaisong, made their mark with wins in the first two sets 27-25, 25-20, benefiting from the opponents’ unforced errors.
The Thai team still raced to an initial lead in the third set with a three-point clear at 14-11, but soon after that they became prone to unforced attacking and serving mistakes, allowing the Indonesians several attacking opportunities to mount a strong comeback. With Fahri on fire in attack and their blocking working out pretty well, Indonesia gradually pulled their games together and hit back aggressively to catch up at 15-15. They surged ahead the tough opponents to lead commandingly with a four-point advantage at 24-20 and allowed Thailand only one more point to wrap up the set 25-21.
Their confidence boosted following one-set win, Indonesia remained strong offensively in the fourth set. As the unforced errors started trickling in while the Indonesians fought on to level it back at 14-14, Thailand tried hard in counter-attacking. Indonesia head coach Chinese Jiang Jie smartly shuffled his lineup and his intention paid its dividends when his team went on their attacks to extend the lead to 24-20 and as a similar script as the third set, they allowed Thailand one more point to win the set 25-21 for a 2-2 tie.
Inspired by the fantastic support from the stands, Indonesia stormed on with a lot of power and enthusiasm to take an early 7-4 lead in the tie-breaker. Though Thailand fought back hard, with Jakkrit Thanomnoi, Supakorn Jenthaisong and Chaiwat Thungkham penetrating the rivals’ defence with their exceptional attacks, Indonesia took control of the game, widening the gap to 12-8 and never looked back after that to win the decider 15-9 and match.
Following the 3-2 win, Indonesia made it three in a row in Philippines for an aggregate 8 points, giving the other three teams impossibility to catch up with them. Indonesia stretched their domination over the SEA V. League for two in a row, sweeping the First Leg on home soil last week and doing the same thing in the Second Leg in Philippines this time.
Thailand had only 4 points from one win against two losses to finish third place in this tournament following the results of the day’s second match between Vietnam and Philippines.
Vietnam, which, ahead of their last match against hosts Philippines on Sunday, had 2 points from one win against one loss, struggled hard to beat the host team in well-fought five-set thriller 22-25, 25-18, 25-20, 24-26, 15-8.
The Vietnamese played well under pressure in front of a large number of the rivals’ fans at the venue. Going down in a close first set 22-25, the Vietnamese dominated the next two sets, with Truong The Khai, Pham Van Hiep and Duong Van Tien unleashing spectacular attacks and Truong The Khai blocking solidly for the team’s 25-18, 25-20 wins and the 2-1 lead.
The fourth set was more thrilling with Filipinos Bryan Bagunas, Marck Espejo and rising star Steven Charles Rotter steering the host side with their fine form for a strong comeback. Though challenged seriously by the Vietnamese, the host side managed to hold on to their advantage and won the hotly-contested set 26-24.
It was not the Philippines making the abundant unforced errors in the tie-breaker, but with consistency and resilience, the Vietnamese were cruising on to a 15-9 blowout for the eventual win in this grueling clash.
With the dramatic 3-2 win against the Philippines, Vietnam had an aggregate 4 points from two wins against one loss, which helped them surge ahead Thailand to the second spot in the team standing. Hosts Philippines lost them all to claim the fourth place, the ranking they had already achieved in the First Leg in Indonesia.
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