The women’s national volleyball team, led by coach Cesar Hernandez, is traveling to Paris to compete in the final qualifier for the Olympic Games. It will be interesting to see how the team performs at the event, as Cesar has vowed to take responsibility if they fail to qualify for the Olympics.

The team, which will compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification Tournament in Łódź, Poland, from Sept. 16 to 24, will depart for Poland on Thursday morning through Incheon International Airport.

Kim Dain (Hyundai E&C) and Kim Ji-won (GS Caltex) will be the setters. Kim Yeon-yeon (Hyundai E&C) and Moon Jung-won (Korea Expressway Corporation) will be the liberos.

Kang So-hwi, Kwon Min-ji (GS Caltex), Park Jung-ah, Lee Han-bi (Pepper Savings Bank), and Pyo Seung-ju (IBK) will be the outside hitters, while Lee Sun-woo (Jung Kwan-jang) will be the opposite.

Park Eun-jin, Jung Ho-young (Sang Jeong Kwanjang), Lee Da-hyun (Hyundai E&C), and Lee Ju-ah (Heungkuk Life) were selected as middle blockers.

Korea will face Italy, Poland, Germany, USA, Colombia, Thailand, and Slovenia in Group C of the qualifiers. The second-place finisher will qualify for the Olympics.

Heading into the Olympic qualifiers, the women’s volleyball team had some concerns. At the 2023 Asian Volleyball Championships in Thailand earlier this month, South Korea finished sixth. It was the first time South Korean women’s volleyball has failed to reach the quarterfinals at an Asian championship. The team has consistently reached the quarterfinals since the inaugural tournament in 1975, but this is the first time in its history that it has failed to advance to the final four.

It was also the second year in a row that the team went winless in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) from May to July. South Korea is the first country to go winless in two consecutive tournaments in the Volleyball Nations League since its inception in 2018.

This raises concerns for the final qualifiers for the Paris Olympics. If Cesar fails to qualify, it will be the first time South Korea has failed to qualify for the Olympic Games since 1964, when women’s volleyball became an Olympic sport.

In the lead-up to the qualifiers, César had made some nuanced comments about how her career could depend on the outcome of the qualifiers. On June 27, after his team lost to World No. 16 Bulgaria in the first match of Week 3 of the 2023 Volleyball Nations League in Suwon, Korea, Cesar said he would take responsibility if they failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

At the time, Cesar said, “If we don’t make it to the Olympics through the Olympic qualifiers, I will take the corresponding responsibility. I will discuss the direction of the national team with the federation,” he said, causing a stir. This was interpreted as a way of saying that he would relinquish the baton if he failed to qualify for the Olympics.

On his way out of the country, César clarified that his comments were not meant to be a resignation, but the aftertaste is not pleasant.

Even if César stays on at the helm for the Olympic qualifiers and then the Hangzhou Asian Games, the outlook is not promising.

After finishing fifth at Doha 2006, South Korean women’s volleyball won silver at Guangzhou 2010, gold at Incheon 2014, and bronze at Jakarta-Palembang 2018, but there is a sense of urgency that the team could finish on the sidelines again for the first time in 17 years.카지노

South Korea will open its Asian Games group stage campaign in Hangzhou next month against Vietnam on Nov. 1 and Nepal on Nov. 2. Vietnam is the team Korea lost to at the Asian Championships. If Korea loses to Vietnam in the Asian Games qualifiers, as it did at the Asian Championships, the road to a medal could be tough.