The Dutch national team recorded their fourth victory in the VNL after defeating host Thailand 3:0 (25:23, 25:22, 25:15) in their last match of the competition in Bangkok during the second tournament of the Nations League.
During this tournament, the "Tulips" were led by the former head coach of Maritsa (Plovdiv), Ahmetcan Erşimşek. The official coach, Felix Koslowski, was absent due to family reasons.
With this success, the Dutch women accumulated 12 points and temporarily climbed to 9th place in the Nations League standings. Thailand has 9 points and one less victory, remaining in 14th position after the end of the tournament in front of their home crowd.
There were no changes in the positions of the two teams in the world rankings. The Netherlands remains eighth in the world, while Thailand is in 20th place. The victory brought the Europeans 4.45 points for the FIVB ranking, while the Asians lost the same amount.
The Netherlands dominated in attack and block.
Statistics show a clear superiority of the visitors in the most important game elements. The Dutch women scored 48 points from attack against 37 for Thailand and finished with 6 successful blocks against 4.
| Metric | Thailand | Netherlands |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | 37 | 48 |
| Block | 4 | 6 |
| Serve | 3 | 3 |
| Points from opponent errors | 16 | 18 |
| Total points | 60 | 75 |
The Netherlands was more effective primarily in attack, where they scored 11 points more. The tie in aces shows that the decisive factor was not the serve, but the higher efficiency in attack and better blocking.
Thailand excelled in defense and reception.
Interestingly, the hosts were better in some of the other elements of the game.
| Metric | Thailand | Netherlands |
|---|---|---|
| Digs | 67 | 61 |
| Reception | 67 | 58 |
| Organized attacks | 108 | 100 |
Despite their superiority in defense and reception, the Thai players could not convert enough plays into points. This was mainly due to lower efficiency in the finishing phase of the attack, where the Netherlands made the difference.
Top scorers
Knollema was the top scorer in the match with 19 points and led the Netherlands' attack. For Thailand, K. Pimpichaya performed best with 16 points, but did not receive enough support from the other attackers.
Standings around Bulgaria before the last two matches of the tournament
| Rank | Team | Matches | Wins | Losses | Points | Sets | Points won | Points lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Netherlands | 8 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 15:12 | 607 | 592 |
| 10 | Czech Republic | 8 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 12:14 | 571 | 575 |
| 11 | Belgium | 8 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13:21 | 698 | 746 |
| 12 | Serbia | 8 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 15:18 | 705 | 720 |
| 13 | Germany | 7 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 12:16 | 601 | 616 |
| 14 | Thailand | 8 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 12:19 | 650 | 698 |
| 15 | Ukraine | 8 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 12:22 | 691 | 764 |
| 16 | Bulgaria | 8 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 8:20 | 569 | 653 |
| 17 | Dominican Republic | 8 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 8:22 | 587 | 709 |
| 18 | France | 8 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 9:23 | 630 | 740 |
Netherlands is in 9th place and is currently right on the border of the Top 10 with a record of 4 wins and 4 losses. Thailand occupies 14th position. Bulgaria remains 16th with 5 points and a game balance of 8:20 after eight matches played.
