CHOCO Mucho's uphill battle just got steeper as it will have to enter its win-or-go home prelims finale in the 2024 PVL Reinforced Conference without head coach Dante Alinsunurin.
READ: PVL SCENARIOS: How Choco Mucho or Farm Fresh can clinch last playoff spot
The champion shot-caller will join Alas Pilipinas Men in Indonesia for Leg 2 of the 2024 SEA V.League, making him unavailable for the Flying Titans.
The three-day regional meet runs from Friday to Sunday. And if Choco Mucho makes it to the playoffs, Alinsunurin will likely miss its quarterfinal match as the No. 8 seed is scheduled to play on Saturday against unbeaten top-seed Akari.
Alinsunurin already skipped Alas Pilipinas' penultimate match in their SEA V.League home leg against Indonesia, where the nationals didn't just lose the game but also lost its captain Bryan Bagunas to an undisclosed left knee injury.
He'd then be present at the sidelines in Choco Mucho's eventual straight-sets loss to Creamline last Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
But this time, the Choco Mucho mentor will join the rest of the Philippine team as part of newly-minted Italian coach Angiolino Frigoni's staff.
For all the marbles
The stakes won't be any bigger for the Flying Titans as their final match of pool play against a PLDT team that has only lost twice in their last seven matches will determine their playoff fate.
It's quite simple at this point for Choco Mucho — win and go in or lose and go home.
Regardless of how many sets it will take, a Choco Mucho victory over PLDT is enough to overtake Farm Fresh for the last quarterfinals berth by virtue of match points even if they'll possibly share a 3-5 record by the end of the preliminary round.
But a loss to PLDT sends Choco Mucho down to ninth place at 2-6 and, hence, eliminated from playoff contention.
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