PH gets Group A, opens bid vs. Mongolia in Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship, Manila

NEW WORLD HOTEL, Makati City—Eighteen countries will comprise the biggest field in the history of the tournament as the PLDT HOME Fibr 2014 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship groupings were drawn here.

Delegates from the various embassies representing the participating nations attended the draw to determine Asia’s entry to the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Club World Championships in Betim, Brazil later this year. The Asian tilt will be held on Philippine soil for the first time since its inception in 1999 and having the biggest turnout is something that Filipinos should be proud of, according to Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Executive Vice President Shanrit Wongprasert.

“This is history being made,” Wongprasert shared during an interview following the draw. “The Philippines should be proud of this as (it is) slowly coming back as being known for volleyball in Asia.”

Wongprasert presided over the draw together with AVC Vice President for Development and Marketing—and Philippine Super Liga President—Ramon “Tats” Suzara.

Defending champions Iran headline the competitors that will arriving in Manila as early as a week prior to the undertaking which is scheduled on April 8-16 and whose matches will be played in popular sports venues within the metropolis.

“We have gone to many places in the city,” Wongprasert said. “But after rigid inspection, the two venues selected are the Cuneta Astrodome (in Pasay City) and Ninoy Aquino (Stadium).”

Wongprasert even joked of his memories of visiting the latter.

“It was my first time to go inside Ninoy Aquino (Stadium) because the last time I went there, it was underwater.”

The Philippines hosted the 2009 Asian Men’s Volleyball Championship but had the misfortune of having the event held coinciding with super typhoon “Ondoy” which rendered the Ninoy Aquino Stadium useless due to the massive floods that afflicted Metro Manila at the time. The tournament was cramped into one venue—the San Andres Gym in Manila and somehow got completed with Japan winning the gold medal against Iran. The Philippines—led by then collegiate stalwarts Edjet Mabbayad, Edcer Penetrante, Dante Alinsunurin and coached by present women’s team mentor Sammy Acaylar—finished fifteenth out of the eighteen nations that joined.

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Now in the 2014 staging of the Club edition, the Philippines hopes to improve on that placing despite the fact that the 2009 event was the last time a national men’s squad competed in an international volleyball tournament.

“Siyempre kung sa akin lang sasabihin kong dapat panalo lahat ng laban,” Philippine team Head Coach Francis Vicente stated. “Pero alam naman natin malalakas ang mga kalaban at nakalamang na sila sa experience over the past few years kaya mapapangako ko lang na pupukpok kami sa bawat laban.”

And those battles begin in the preliminary round. Here’s how the draw went:

Group A:

Philippines (Host)

Iraq (Asia-7th)

Kuwait

Mongolia

Group B:

Iran (Defending Champion)

Japan (Asia-6th)

Lebanon

Vietnam

Group C:

Qatar (Asia-2nd)

Kazakhstan (Asia-5th)

Oman

Hong Kong

Turkmenistan

Group D:

Chinese-Taipei (Asia-3rd)

China (Asia-4th)

United Arab Emirates

India

Papua New Guinea

Being the host nation, the Philippines was already placed in Group A while the top seven nations in Asia were scattered by rank throughout the subsequent groups following the “snaking” pattern. The draw was conducted for the unseeded countries and the Philippines—unlike its basketball counterparts headed to Spain this September—lands in perhaps the second weakest group of the lot.

Group B is easily the proverbial “Group of Death” while Group D appears to be lightest in terms of competition, but again one can never be certain.

During the draw, the host nation also had the unique advantage of being allowed to pick which country it preferred to open the home stand against. Vicente—in caucus with Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) Secretary General Rustico “Otie” Camangian—opted for Mongolia as its initial opponent. That match will happen on opening day, April 8th.

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“As we haven’t been in circulation for a while, we know very little about our opponents from a scouting standpoint,” Camangian later explained. “Opening against a country whose volleyball heritage is not that publicized was what (we) believed was the best option to gauge how our team will proceed in the tournament.”

“We hope the Filipino volleyball fans will support this endeavor,” Local Organizing Committe (LOC) Chairman Philip Ella Juico (who will also head the tournament’s competition committee) said. “It’s a very good opportunity for us to regain out foothold in Asian volleyball.”

The women’s team will be competing in the distaff version of the meet on April 17-25 in Nakhompathom, Thailand.

For the team being formed and trained for this sortie, PVF President Karl Chan bared the plans.

“Upon the submission of the final list of nineteen selected by the coaching staff, the contingent will head to Incheon, Korea for an intensive two-week workout. They will also be joined by their two imports there and will make it back in time for the tournament itself.”

The Philippine teams (both the men’s and women’s squads) are being bankrolled by PLDT and hence will be carrying the PLDT name as the club name. The women’s team is called the Power Pinays while men’s team is still undergoing the creative process as of this writing.

“This is the formative stage in the creation of a solid national team program,” Chan expounded further on the next step of the federation. “We have several international competitions line-up, which may include the upcoming Asian Games. The members of the teams that will see action here will form the core of the national team.”

The official list for both national teams have not yet been made public, but several insiders have already indicated that there are several shoo-ins to make the men's squad such as former UAAP MVP JP Torres, former San Beda ace Rocky Honrade and NCAA scoring champion Howard Mojica. It remains to be seen if actor/sportsman Richard Gomez will make the cut, but he has been training religiously with the team. The release of the final nineteen members next week will effectively end all speculation.

The grandeur that is the 2014 PLDT HOME Fibr Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship has not yet fully dawned on many, as the days approach and more concrete news becomes available, the bigger the clamour will be to witness some of the best in Asia make their presences felt on our very own home soil.

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Here are a few teasers: are you ready to watch a seven-foot utility spiker in action? How about imports from Argentina, Turkey and Italy? And probably one of the top five best setters in the world? Watch out.

Follow Noel Zarate on Twitter (@NoelZarate) and email sportztackle@yahoo.com