"Pimpicha" points out two key concerns for the Thai women's volleyball team before facing China in the 2026 Asian Games semifinals.
On 21 Sep 2026, Beam Pimpicha Kokrarm, a key player of the Thai women's national volleyball team, gave an interview ahead of their semifinal match against China in the 2026 Asian Games women's volleyball tournament held in Aichi, Japan.
The Thai women's volleyball team, ranked 13th in the world, will face China, ranked 7th, again after recently beating them 3-2 in the 2026 Asian Women's Volleyball Championship final, securing the title and qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games for the first time in their history.
However, Beam Pimpicha emphasized that the Thai women's team must not underestimate China, which has very tall players and a strong blocking game. Meanwhile, Thailand needs to increase their aggression after playing too passively in the quarterfinals, where they beat Indonesia 3-0 despite trailing 8-20 in the second set before rallying to win 29-27.
Beam Pimpicha said, "We may have lost control of our game, allowing them to score so far ahead, which is very bad. We need to discuss what happened and ensure it doesn't happen again because it could affect our upcoming matches."
"We don't want to blame playing early in the day. Once on the court, everyone should perform their best. I try to motivate my teammates as much as possible. Once we're out there, we must be very aggressive."
"We just faced China recently; they are a strong team. We will not underestimate them. Their players are very tall, and their blocking game is excellent. We will review videos to plan how to play against them."
The 2026 Asian Games women's volleyball semifinal between Thailand and China takes place today at 14:00 GMT+7, live on PPTV HD 36 and the AIS PLAY application.
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