Samsung’s Showdown On LG`s Court

LG rookie coach Shin Young-chul, who was positive on defeating his home team, the Samsung Fires, couldn`t hide the stern look on his face at his players’ unforced errors.

The first place Samsung Fires edged the number four LG Fires with a set score of 3-0 by adopting its "Left Jin-shik-Right Se-jin" formation in which the team packed the 2 best cannon strikers together in a year and six months in the first round of the KT&G 2004 men`s volleyball playoffs at the Busan Sajik gymnasium on the 19th.

The Samsung Fires secured a favorable spot with the team victory in a 3 match-2 win playoff competition and extended its winter league-winning streak to 75.

The LG Fires, which recorded a five shutout match standing against the Samsung Fires on the regular tour, implemented strong attacks in the opening as the team emphasized forestalling the opponent to be the winning factor. The hidden card was surprisingly infiltrating core attacker, Lee Kyung-soo in the back row. But the team fell with continuous errors with will surpassing action. The Samsung Fires’ errors read at 7 while the LG Fires tallied 22 errors.

The Samsung Fires took the first set 25-23 and at the 2nd set substituted Kim Se-Jin and Shin Jin-shik to lead the team to the second set victory 25-21. The team finally captured a complete win in the third set by allowing only 17 points for the opponent.

It was the first time Kim Se-jin (18 points) and Shin Jin-shik (7 points) matched up in the front since the 2002 Asian Games due to injuries, and we can anticipate their exertions for the championships. Also, Shin Sun-ho (10 points) succeeded in 10 blocks in the game and broke the 100th blocked point mark for the first time in the winter league history with 104 blocks for the season.

Meanwhile, in the women’s match up between the regular season ranked second team and third, Korea Highway Corporation ran over KT&G 3-0.

Sang-Ho Kim hyangsan@donga.com