NAGOYA-The Alas Pilipinas Men closed pool campaign in the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games with a 25-21, 20-25, 17-25, 27-29 loss to Chinese Taipei on Tuesday at the Okazaki Central Park Gymnasium.
It wasn’t the way the Alas Men wanted their campaign to be in the Asian Games.
‘We performed good enough in the first set, I saw the eagerness and the will to win from my teammates,’ team captain Bryan Bagunas said. ‘But when it comes to crucial points, how to deal with them, that’s where we lose our composure.’
Bagunas had 17 points and Joshua Magalaman 16 points for Alas Men in the one-hour and 52-minute battle that sent the Filipinos to the classification round where they could finish at the best at ninth place, like their women counterparts.
Summing up their performance in group play, Bagunas said they have what it takes to compete at a high level in the Asian Games.
‘Our first two opponents are strong but the level of their game is not that high,’ he said. ‘We’re so close to what they can do on the court.’
For Bagunas, the priority is to carry the lessons from the pool stage into their remaining matches.
‘We’re hoping to lessen our errors so we could snatch victories in the classification round,’ he said.