On February 5, GS Caltex club lost 2-3 to Pepper Savings Bank in the 2024-2025 Korean National Volleyball Championship.
This was a regrettable loss for the GS Caltex girls. Recently, YouTube channel @necazzig posted a video recording the scene of Bich Thuy and her teammate Oh Se-yeon bursting into tears right after the end of set 3 - the set in which she and her teammates unexpectedly lost.
After the article updating the results was posted on the homepage, youtube channel and social media platforms of the team that Bich Thuy is playing for, fans of this club flooded in with harsh comments.
Criticism was directed towards head coach Lee Young-taek. The message "LYT out" was given. Many people even questioned whether the Korean coach used his authority to make incorrect substitutions, leading to the team's regrettable loss.
This is understandable. Because, in that match, foreign player Giselle Silva was the main scorer and most effective point-scorer on GS Caltex's side. However, in set 3, when GS Caltex was leading 23-17, coach Lee Young-taek made a series of personnel changes, including taking Giselle Silva out.
Due to coach Lee Young-taek's mistake in calculating the number of substitutions, key foreign player Giselle Silva could not return to the field at the decisive moment. As a result, they lost to their opponents in a comeback win 26-24.
Despite equalizing in set 4, Bich Thuy and her teammates could not turn the situation around and lost with a final score of 2-3.
This result caused GS Caltex to miss the opportunity to improve their ranking, and their situation became even more difficult when GS Caltex was at the bottom of the rankings with 21 matches, 5 wins after 26 matches.
Coach Lee Young-taek himself admitted: "My players played very hard but the team lost because of my mistake. I thought there was still a substitution and there was no need to bring Silva back on the field but that was a big mistake."
In response to the strong reactions from fans of the GS Caltex team, the Korean newspaper Chosun recently published an article analyzing this issue.
"The accusations of match-fixing against coach Lee Young-taek are groundless. Mr. Lee's mistake is clear, but accusing this coach of cheating is excessive and baseless.
In sports, tactical mistakes can happen. In this case, coach Lee publicly admitted his mistake and bowed his head to apologize to the whole team.
If they want Silva on the field, GS Caltex will have to take setter Ahn Hye-jin off. This means the team will have no one to organize the play, causing great danger in decisive moments.
Coach Lee probably thought that Silva in the back row would not make a significant difference, so he chose to keep the same lineup. However, when the results did not go as expected, this decision became the focus of criticism," Chosun newspaper clearly stated.
