Phots courtesy of Vietcontent
Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, August 3, 2024 – The First Leg of the 4th SEA V. League reaches its climax on Sunday when perennial Southeast Asian Games champions Thailand and long-time archrivals Vietnam locked horns in electrifying showdown at Vinh Phuc Gymnasium to fight for supremacy.
Thailand and Vietnam celebrated their straight two victories on Saturday, with the former mercilessly crushing the Philippines in lopsided battle and the latter powering past Indonesia in well-fought three-setter.
The Sunday’s showdown between Thailand and Vietnam proved to be one of the highly-anticipated clashes fans and supporters of both sides should not miss. Thailand had played Vietnam in the SEA Games finals for 11 times since they first met in 2001 and the former beat the latter every time they played. The last time they faced off against each other was at the rescheduled 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games on October 7, 2023 in China, where Thailand beat the Vietnamese 3-0 in the bronze medal match. In September in the same year, Thailand beat Vietnam 3-1 in the Pool E Top 8 round of the Asian Senior Women’s Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima, where hosts Thailand cruised on to capture their third Asian crown.
In the previous editions of the SEA V. League, formerly known as Asean Grand Prix, Thailand also proved a class above Vietnam to beat the Southeast Asian counterparts every match they had contested. The Thai team had captured the title since the tournament inception in 2019. Last year, Thailand beat Vietnam in their last match of the single round-robin competition in both First Leg here in Vinh Phuc and Second Leg in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
However, with skipper and outside hitter Tran Thi Thanh Thuy at the helm, Vietnam had rapidly made their mark in major competitions, winning the AVC Challenge Cup for two times in succession to their name apart from picking up historic bronze medal at this year’s FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup in the Philippines.
Moreover, Vietnam just had the 188cm-tall opposite Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen to strengthen them, making the team one of the region’s strongest teams to be reckoned with in the near future. Powerful Bich Tuyen had already become widely known among volleyball enthusiasts when she had emerged as the Best Scorer at the recent FIVB Challenger Cup following an aggregate 77 points she had scored and the Best Attacker with 73 attack points earned in that tournament.
Therefore, the Sunday’s…
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