Avarice Creates an Early Breakdown

“If I am anxious to show something from the beginning, I will fall down early. It is not too late to start after I make my own opportunity.”

“I understood well, sir.”

The fifth KT&G V Tour 2004 Volleyball Daejeon Tour was held at Choong-moo Gymnasium in Daejeon on February 26. Involved were Shin Chi-yong, Samsung Fire head coach, and Shin Young-chul, LG Insurance head coach. Shin Young-chul had played on the same team for 17 years and took the charge of rival LG Insurance recently. Before the match, as soon as Shin Young-chul, who had arrived the gymnasium one hour earlier before the match, saw the Shin Chi-yong head coach, he ran to him and bowed to him courteously.

However the relationship of master and disciple is one thing; the bout is another. Shin Young-chul, who had picked the surprise “position demolition” card and had suffered a complete defeat at the hands of Korean Air, contended for victory this day by selecting the original position which players get used to. Shin Chi-yong also inserted all of the team’s regular starters and refused to take a step backward.

The result was Samsung Fire’s complete 3-0 victory. It was the Samsung Fire’s 68th consecutive victory and they are approaching the Winter Volleyball League’s successive victory record. The record in women’s volleyball is LG Caltex’s 69 consecutive wins.

At the outset, the disciple’s challenge was powerful. LG Insurance made a good start with Sohn Suk-beom’s scoring on consecutive points to take a 6-2 lead.

With this, Shin Chi-yong called a time out and inserted Shin Jin-sik, who is the best attacker in the game. Shin Jin-sik lived up to the head coach’s expectations, scoring seven points and subduing LG Insurance’s resistance 25-21.

LG Insurance suffered a misfortune when an injury forced Kim Sung-chae to leave in the middle of the second set. The team lost consecutive sets and then kneeled down.

Meanwhile, in other action, Hyundai Capital dominated Sangmu 3-0. Bang Shin-bong of Hyundai Capital added 2 blocks to run his total to 699 blocks. He is within reach of 700 total blocks.

Sang-Ho Kim hyangsan@donga.com