GOYANG - The first phase in the PBA team league ended with a victory for Jae-ho Cho's team, which thereby secured the first ticket for the play-offs. The Green Force team triumphed in seven of eight matches, finishing ahead of Laon (Jae-guen Kim) and Winners' team (Choong-bok Lee, Lütfi Cenet). Green Force's team includes Antonio Montes, Seong-uk Oh and Bo-mi Kim. The teams of Dani Sánchez, Semih Sayginer and Javier Palazón, among others, finished in the middle part. The team league, with a total of nine teams, continues the second phase on from August 16, the next rounds are from September 14, then December 5 and January 6. The playoffs will be played from January 18 to 28. The Angels team with David Zapata, Can Capak and Sruong Pheavy, was the last team champion. Angels finished in last place in this first round.
Matches in all rounds are played at Kintex Stadium in Goyang. Jae-ho Cho and his team started with two wins, lost the only match to Huons (Sayginer/Palazón) and won the next five matches. The Green Force team consists of Jae-ho Cho, Hyun-woo Kim, Seong-uk Oh, Minh Cam Ma, Antonio Montes, Min-a Kim and Bo-mi Kim. First-chasing Laon plays with Jae-guen Kim, David Martinez, Tae-jun Oh, Tae-kwan Kim, Jung-suk Lim and Min-joo Baek. Laon started with a loss against Green Force and further lost to HanaPlay, falling two match points behind Green Force. Blue One Angels, the champions, started with two losses and took three wins out of five.
Green Force recorded the final win in the final match against HanaPlay, which was won 4-1. The first match in the men's doubles still went to HanaPlay 11-1, won by Jung-ju Shin and Murat Naci Coklu against Jae-ho Cho and Hyun-woo Kim. The other games went to Green Force, thanks in part to Jae-ho Cho, who beat Murat Naci Coklu 15-5, and Antonio Montes, who beat Nguyen Quoc Nguyen 11-7. The Laon team kept the excitement alive with a 4-0 win against Direct.
Notable results in the final round of matches were Winners' win against Bazzar 4-1. Dani Sánchez beat Lütfi Cenet 15-5, but Choong-bok Lee and Sung-kyun Yim won against Dani Sánchez and Deuk-hee Hwang 11-1. Phoenix won the last match against Legend 4-2. Javier Palazón won the match against Birol Uymaz 15-3, Im-gwon Kim beat Semih Sayginer 11-9.
The final score of the first phase (played, won, lost, average):
- Green Force 8-7-1-1.473
- Laon 8-6-2-1.265
- Legend 8-5-3-1,153
- Winners 8-4-4-1,378
- HanaPlay 8-3-5-1,250
- BlueOne Angels 8-3-5-1.183
- SY Bazzar 8-3-5-1,161
- Phoenix 8-3-5-1,098
- SK Rent-a-car 8-2-6-1,106
Jae-ho Cho celebrates the final win with his team
The final win and the joy after the match
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen in the match against Green Force team