S. Korea to enter Olympic men's volleyball qualification tournament

SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will look to qualify for an Olympic men's volleyball tournament for the first time in 20 years in the Netherlands this week. Coached by Im Do-heon, South Korea will compete in the FIVB Men's Volleyball Intercontinental Olympic Qualification Tournament in Rotterdam, starting on Friday. Twenty-four teams have been divided into six groups of four, and the six group winners will qualify for next year's Olympics. Others will have to go through their respective continental qualifiers early next year. South Korea will face host Netherlands, Belgium and the United States in Group B. Coming out on top in that group will be a tall order for South Korea, the lowest-ranked team in the bunch at No. 24. The U.S. is No. 2, followed by Belgium at No. 12 and the Netherlands at No. 15. The realistic goal may be to shore up team chemistry under the new coach. Im took over the reins on May 30 and opened training camp a month later. "If nothing else, we want to play as hard as we can for our fans," Im said. "It won't be easy against these tough teams but I think our players will feed off fan support." South Korea will first face the Netherlands at 4 p.m. Friday, or 11 p.m. Friday in Seoul. The U.S. is up next at 2 a.m. Sunday in South Korean time, followed by Belgium at 2 a.m. Monday in Seoul. The Dutch squad will be led by the reigning South Korean league scoring champion, Thijs ter Horst. "The first game against the Netherlands will be the most important one for us," Im said. "Thijs isn't a great serve receiver, and we'll try to exploit that." Last weekend, the South Korean women's team missed out on direct Olympic qualification in the intercontinental qualifiers, and will try to punch its ticket to Tokyo at the Asian qualifiers in January next year. jeeho@yna.co.kr (END)