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"I could see we let our guard down in the third set," coach Ogino says
OK Financial Group head coach Massa Ogino (54) had no smile on his face as he booked an 88.9 percent chance of reaching the championship match. The disappointment of not being able to decide the match with a set score of 2-0 remained.
OK Financial Group defeated Woori Card 3-2 (25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 15-11) in the first round of the Dodram 2023-2024 V-League Men's Postseason Playoffs (best-of-three) at Jangchung Gymnasium in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday.
This gives OK Financial Group an 88.9% chance of qualifying after starting the regular season in third place. In the past, the first-round winner of the V-League Men's Playoffs has advanced to the championship game 16 out of 18 times.
It was a nail-biter. While Woori Card focused on stopping Leonardo Leyva (34-registered as Leo) in the first set, Shin Seong-jin (23) was on fire. By the second set, he had a whopping 80 percent attack success rate.
But Woori Card, the second-ranked team in the regular season, showed a strong backbone. In the third and fourth sets, they found their stride by utilizing a variety of attackers. Gradually, they blocked Leo's attacks, and domestic attackers such as Kim Ji-han and Song Myung-geun came to life, pushing the match to a fifth set. However, Woori Card had to worry about their stamina as they played two full-set matches in a row, following their semi-final win over Hyundai Capital on the 17th.
After the game, Ogino regretted this aspect. When asked by the press, "It must be hard to play two full sets in a row," Ogino said, "It's the players' fault. I could see that they let their guard down in the third set. Their facial expressions were different," he criticized. "It's not the first time this has happened this season. It happened three or four times and we didn't play very well from then on. Our players are still immature in this area. We're going to talk about it strongly tomorrow (Nov. 24)," he added.
But that was the end of the bitterness. The team regrouped and came back to the game, winning the fifth set 15-11 with a comfortable margin. The team received a lot of praise for their signal jin, who played the role of the main gun in place of Leo, who had a poor attack success rate on the day.
"Shin did a good job," said Ogino. I think they were in great shape," Ogino said. "We made a mistake on our first offense. I pointed it out and it was corrected on the next play. He's a good player that once you give him an instruction, he gives you an answer. He must have been under a lot of pressure today, but he did a good job."
"We practice harder than we play," she said, "but we've been managing our schedule well since we started the V-League, so I think we'll be fine. I believe that the players will manage well in time for the match tomorrow (25th) at 7:00 p.m. Also, the substitutes have made good progress and we are a one-man team, so I think we can show winning volleyball together."
At the end of the interview, Ogino seemed to have more praise in store. "Has OK changed a little bit?" he asked the press, before adding, "I think we need to be a little bit better than last year. Everyone is working hard. Please give me lots of praise," and left the interview room with a smile.