2016 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix

  • This time the Japanese team won't get the chance to play in the final six in Thailand, with just one win and four losses so far there are NED/TUR/ITA in front of them. The team are entertaining to watch every time by giving fierce fights against those strong teams through their strong defense, highly spirited and vigorous team plays... but at the end they just lose. To say it rather bluntly, the Japanese team are simply not having the sufficient arsenal to beat any of the strong teams nowadays, esp. when the match really matters.


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

  • they can't win tournaments.
    but they can upset anybody like they did to china in london.
    that could still happen to any top 4 teams in rio.

    This time the Japanese team won't get the chance to play in the final six in Thailand, with just one win and four losses so far there are NED/TUR/ITA in front of them. The team are entertaining to watch every time by giving fierce fights against those strong teams through their strong defense, highly spirited and vigorous team plays... but at the end they just lose. To say it rather bluntly, the Japanese team are simply not having the sufficient arsenal to beat any of the strong teams nowadays, esp. when the match really matters.

  • WOW!! Amazing Belgium!!! Took the 1st set 26-24 against Serbian A team with Maja & Mihajlovic (minus Boskovic).


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

  • They upseted many teams during the four years before London (WCH - USA; World Cup - USA and Brazil; Olympics - China and Korea). But the Japanese team during these four years is really not as strong as they used to be.

    they can't win tournaments.
    but they can upset anybody like they did to china in london.
    that could still happen to any top 4 teams in rio.

  • Turkey won 3:1 against Germany - nothing unexpected, to make it clear. Though German NT made to many errors, which was the main reason for the result, the core reason is, that Turkey has lots of good players more than Germany to get into NT, so some missing top players doesn't reduce level that much as for Germany.


    At least they won a set again - one set more than Belgium, one of these two will go down to group 2 without any doubt, but it is not yet clear which one and this may persist until last match in one week...

  • they can't win tournaments.
    but they can upset anybody like they did to china in london.
    that could still happen to any top 4 teams in rio.


    - FIVE TOP teams indeed (incl. RUS & SRB).
    - "JPN beat CHN in the QF of 2012 London"... it's a weak, non-delivering CHN team that achieved nothing, with the main hitter, Wang Yi-mei... pre-Lang Ping era!! :D After Lang Ping era (as of 2013), JPN never beat CHN in any match that truly matters!


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

  • they won 2 sets against russian, serbia and usa and 1 set vs china in the world cup last year. all were very close games.


    They upseted many teams during the four years before London (WCH - USA; World Cup - USA and Brazil; Olympics - China and Korea). But the Japanese team during these four years is really not as strong as they used to be.

  • well, maybe they like to be the spoiler in the olympics only.
    we'll see.


    - FIVE TOP teams indeed (incl. RUS & SRB).
    - "JPN beat CHN in the QF of 2012 London"... it's a weak, non-delivering CHN team that achieved nothing, with the main hitter, Wang Yi-mei... pre-Lang Ping era!! :D After Lang Ping era (as of 2013), JPN never beat CHN in any match that truly matters!

  • That Chinese team won the Bronze Medal at the 2011 World Cup.


    - FIVE TOP teams indeed (incl. RUS & SRB).
    - "JPN beat CHN in the QF of 2012 London"... it's a weak, non-delivering CHN team that achieved nothing, with the main hitter, Wang Yi-mei... pre-Lang Ping era!! :D After Lang Ping era (as of 2013), JPN never beat CHN in any match that truly matters!

  • Saori Kimura, Koga and Araki did not play today and they almost took 2 sets from USA. They were playing good but just in the end of 2nd and 3rd set they screw things up..they did not had a fighting spirit or motivation to win....


    I dont think Japan really wants to play the GP finals this year.. same as Serbia and Italy. And Land Ping probably wont be there either...I guess it will be again btw Brazil/USA and Russia...


    Belgium is playing really well today....So Boskovic went to China to only play a match vs Brazil...what a shame.... Im curious to know who Terzic will send to play next week...

  • With playing quality as diplayed today against Serbia "A", and I care not the outcome of this match, Belgium deserve to stay at Group 1 (esp. since KOR still nowhere to show up), they should not be relegated to Group 2. Bravo Belgium! GO the brave & spirited ladies... :super:


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

  • I have a question that I've always wanted to ask. So Belgium's official languages are Dutch, French and German, do they all speak these 3 languages? If I'm correct, the BEL team is communicating in Dutch, right? Could there be anyone who can't really speak it? Thank you.

  • how did serbia-belgium end?