Pakistan makes history as Vital Heynen’s China adventure ends with a heavy defeat. Iran down Japan to take 4th consecutive Asian Games Gold Medal

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Vital Heynen’s final match as head coach of China could hardly have gone worse. In Aichi-Nagoya, the Belgian watched his team suffer a clear 3-0 defeat against Pakistan in the Asian Games bronze medal match, ending his tenure with one of the most disappointing performances of an already difficult season.
China never managed to make the match competitive.
Pakistan won 25:18, 25:16 and 25:18, finishing the contest in just 67 minutes.
The Chinese team did not reach 20 points in any of the three sets, while Pakistan celebrated a historic bronze medal.

For Pakistan, the result ended a 64-year wait for another Asian Games volleyball medal. The previous one had also been a bronze, won at the 1962 Jakarta Games. More than six decades later, Pakistan finally returned to the podium, doing so at the expense of one of Asia’s traditional volleyball powers.
The result was particularly significant because China had not travelled to the Asian Games with a weakened or experimental squad.
All 14 players who had represented the country at the Volleyball Nations League Finals in Ningbo were also part of the Asian Games roster. Among them were Jiang Chuan, Yu Yuantai, Wang Bin, Wang Hebin, Zhang Zhijia, Li Yongzhen and Peng Shikun.
Instead, the tournament provided another difficult chapter in a season that had already produced very few positives for the Chinese national team.
China finished last in the VNL preliminary phase, 18th overall, with just one victory from 12 matches.
Their presence at the Finals in Ningbo was guaranteed by their status as hosts rather than by their position in the standings.
The Asian Championship brought another setback in September, when China were eliminated in the quarter-finals after a 3-1 defeat against Korea.

The Asian Games offered an opportunity to finish the season on a different note.
China reached the semi-finals, but were involved in a dramatic battle with Japan before eventually losing 3-2. It was immediately after that match that Heynen confirmed that the bronze medal game would be his final appearance on the Chinese bench.
The Belgian coach had already identified one of the problems that had followed his team throughout the season: basic technical errors that continued to appear despite being repeatedly addressed in training. Against Pakistan, those difficulties surfaced once again, but this time there was no late reaction or dramatic fightback.

Instead, Pakistan controlled the match from beginning to end.

For Heynen, it brought an abrupt conclusion to a coaching adventure that had begun with considerable expectations. The Belgian, who had previously guided Poland to the 2018 World Championship title and Germany to a historic bronze medal at the 2014 World Championship, leaves China after a season in which results never reached the level hoped for.
For Pakistan, meanwhile, the same match will be remembered very differently.
The 3-0 victory did more than secure bronze: it restored the country to the Asian Games volleyball podium for the first time since 1962.
One team’s difficult season therefore ended with a painful farewell, while the other celebrated a piece of history.
In the space of 67 minutes, Pakistan made sure that Heynen’s last match with China would also become one of the most memorable moments of its own Asian Games campaign.

Meanwhile, Iran has officially captured their 4th consecutive Asian Games Gold Medal after defeating host nation Japan in a thrilling four-set match: 28:26, 19:25, 25:21, 26:24.
Japan concludes an incredible tournament run with the Silver Medal on home soil.

FINAL STANDINGS – 20th Asian Games
Men’s Volleyball

🥇 🇮🇷 Iran
🥈 🇯🇵 Japan
🥉 🇵🇰 Pakistan
4. 🇨🇳 China
5. 🇹🇭 Thailand
6. 🇮🇳 India
7. 🇰🇷 Korea
8. 🇶🇦 Qatar
9. 🇹🇼 Chinese Taipei
10. 🇻🇳 Vietnam
11. 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
12. 🇮🇩 Indonesia
13. 🇵🇭 Philippines
14. 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan
15. 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
16. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong

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