The Thailand women's national volleyball team is preparing to compete in the 2026 Nations League (VNL 2026) Stage 3 in Osaka, Japan, from 8 to 12 July, having resumed training.
"Chompoo" Pornpan Kidaprach, team captain and setter for Thailand, spoke about the four top-ranked opponents in Stage 3, saying, "We cannot underestimate Japan. Their performance improves every year, and their standard is already high. To compete against them, we must plan well and prepare physically. I believe we can fight back."
"Playing against physically stronger opponents is always tougher. I feel the USA will be harder to face than Japan. Japan is also an Asian team with similar height and strength, so it should be a close match and likely a long one."
"The USA plays a style somewhat similar to ours, more like the Asian style within the American context. From experience, their patterns and systems are not very different from volleyball generally, so nothing surprises us from their side. However, their strength and physical power stand out as differences."
Pornpan also revealed that matches against Brazil tend to be long and that they have come closest to victory against Brazil, despite Brazil being unpredictable.
"Brazil is very interesting. In the first two stages, their key players rotated a lot, with new players coming in instead. They rotate their players well and rest their main players since they know they can reach the finals. So they save their main players for the last stage, which leads into their final round. But we cannot know who will play, even if their main players come. We just don't know who will be on court."
"Against Brazil, we tend to play the longest matches—usually four sets—which is very close to winning. Sometimes, it feels like the momentum depends on the day and how things go."
Thailand women's volleyball schedule for VNL 2026 Stage 3 in Japan
8 July 2026 (13:30) Thailand vs. United States
9 July 2026 (17:20) Japan vs. Thailand
11 July 2026 (13:30) Thailand vs. Brazil
12 July 2026 (13:30) Thailand vs. Turkey