Foreign managers face off for first time in V-League regular season men's game
Head coach Ogino Massage OK Financial Group
Korean Air head coach Tommi Tilikainen and OK Financial Group head coach Massa Ogino will face off in the first ever "foreign head coach matchup" in the men's regular season of the Korean Professional Volleyball V League.
Both coaches said they "don't care," but it's a unique moment in the history of the V-League Men's Division when two foreign coaches meet as foes in the same game.
Korean Air and OK Financial Group will play the final match of the first round of the Professional Volleyball Dodram 2023-2024 V-League Men's Division at Gyeyang Gymnasium in Incheon on Sunday.
Tilikainen is the second foreign head coach in the history of the V-League Men's Division and Ogino is the third.
The two teams first met in the Group A qualifiers of the Gumi Professional Volleyball Cup in August, with Korean Air, led by Tilikainen, winning in straight sets 3-2.
This will be the first time the two foreign love birds have met in a men's regular season V-League match.
On the women's side, the first foreign managerial clash took place on October 22 when Heungkuk Life (Marcello Abondanza) played Pepper Savings Bank (Joe Trinzi).
"I've been in Korea for six months now, and Coach Tilikainen has a lot of experience in Korea (winning back-to-back titles in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons)," said OK Financial Group head coach Ogino before the game. There are things I can learn from him."
Tilikainen coached the Nagoya Wolfdogs in Nippon Professional Volleyball from the 2017-2018 season to the 2020-2021 season. However, there was no interaction between the two at the time.
"When Coach Tilikainen was in Japan, I was not a head coach, I was in the management team of a Japanese professional team, so I saw him from a distance," Ogino said.
Korean Air head coach Tomi Tilikainen
"OK Financial Group's offense, defense, serving, blocking, everything has changed since Coach Ogino took over," Tilikainen said. It's interesting to watch," he said, adding, "These changes come naturally with a new coach. The nationality of the coach doesn't matter. I don't think there's anything special about today's matchup either." 19가이드03