Breathtaking comeback, Border Guard defends national men's volleyball championship

On the evening of October 15, at the men's final of the National Volleyball Championship, Border Guard defeated The Cong Tan Cang to take the throne.

Border Guard won the national championship for the second consecutive year - Photo: VFV

What's interesting about this year's final is that two army volleyball teams are facing each other. This is the first time in history that this has happened.

Historically, The Cong Tan Cang is slightly better with 4 times winning the championship and 7 times finishing second. But in recent years, they have had difficulty regaining their position. Meanwhile, Border Guard is rising strongly with a well-balanced squad of athletes, coming from youth tournaments and having a lot of competition experience.

They are also the defending champions of the tournament, so it is understandable why they are rated higher. But then, The Cong Tan Cang was the team that brought many surprises in the first half of the match.

Indonesian hitter Rivan Nurmulki continues to shoulder the responsibility of scoring for The Cong. The excellence of this setter also helps surrounding teammates such as Trung Thanh and Xuan Sinh play coherently.

As a result, they won 25-21 in set 1. In set 2, Coach Tran Dinh Tien of the Border Guard came up with a surprising solution by withdrawing many key players from the field. This further caused his team to fall into crisis, when they were sometimes left behind by up to 4 points.

But then the pillars returned and played much better. Among them, setter Dinh Van Duy was able to get rid of the psychological burden and had some difficult moves, helping Border Guard equalize.

The two teams went into a long tug-of-war. After that, Border Guard won a thrilling 31-29 victory. In the third set, they continued their winning streak to win 25-20.

The championship was getting closer and closer to Bien Phong when they continued to create a lead in set 4. Coach Tran Dinh Tien's team even reached the championship-point when leading 24-23. But then The Cong fought bravely, successfully saving the point to win 26-24.

This forced the final match to go into a 5th set and there were more thrilling developments. The Cong was the team that took the lead again to lead 3-1, 7-5. But then, when experience and class spoke up, Border Guard still came back to win 15-12 to win the championship.

They are the only team to win all three national championships this year, and have also won the three domestic titles, having previously won the Hoa Lu Cup and Hung Vuong Cup. Meanwhile, The Cong has officially entered the 9th year without winning the national championship.

DUC KHUE

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoc-dong-nghet-tho-bien-phong-bao-ve-chuc-vo-dich-bong-chuyen-nam-quoc-gia-20251015224608145.htm