After 13 days of intense training at the Olympic Stadium and the outdoor court at the Kien Khleang National Rehabilitation Centre, the Cambodian National Standing Volleyball Team was ready for its first serious test on Thursday afternoon.

In search for a suitably strong able-bodied team which seriously can compete with the National Team, I asked the Cambodian National able-bodied Volleyball Team to have a friendly game as they currently for in preparation for their participation in the SEA-Games, to be held next week in Vientiane, Laos.

For me as Coach, the aim of this match was to execute techniques, tactics and strategies the team had worked on over the past two weeks. This aim was completely fulfilled. Though losing 3:0 against the second squad of the able-bodied national athletes, the National Standing Team showed great effort and skills and lost each set by only two points (23:25, 23:25, 24:26).

With two new, young players on the court the game of the Cambodian National Team has become more precise, faster and deadlier for every opponent. The able-bodied team sometimes desperately tried to attack against a great block without having a chance to score. All spectators inside the Olympic Stadium were deeply impressed by this great game between these two Cambodian National Teams.

At the end, I was very pleased with what he saw and even with the result. Prior to the game I hadn’t imagined losing each set by only two points. It is the best result for the team and I. If we would have won this game, it would have become very difficult for me to motivate the players again to train hard. Now they recognize that we are on a very good way but that there is still some potential we can and we have to work on.