Women's World Grand Champions Cup 2017

  • It sucks Japan lost, they would have a shot at a medal if they had won. They were leading 20-16 in the 4th. :wacko:


    But considering they are without Koga and Nagaoka I think they are playing and they are in the right direction.


    This match was an anniversary event for me. It was Japan v Russia at Rio that started this whole Volleyball love thing for me.


    I didn't read the forum or get any spoilers before watching the match today. At the end of the 3rd set I hit the Fast Forward button in my media player to jump 30 seconds and spoiler/noticed there was 48 minutes remaining to the video. I thought hmm ... that's enough for a fourth and fifth set. Sweaty palms ... 20-16 in the fourth. Oh the heartbreak!

  • i was only able to watch a little bit of the CHN x USA and BRA x CHN matches, then those vids were deleted from YT.


    it seems that CHN has turned into a monster team these days. other than the setter (ding xia), everybody else is sooooo tall. i think this team is taller than RUS now? it seems with that height advantage, only SRB on a very good day can deal with this team.

  • i was only able to watch a little bit of the CHN x USA and BRA x CHN matches, then those vids were deleted from YT.


    it seems that CHN has turned into a monster team these days. other than the setter (ding xia), everybody else is sooooo tall. i think this team is taller than RUS now? it seems with that height advantage, only SRB on a very good day can deal with this team.


    If you still want to watch them I'll send you a private message on how to get the Videos (don't want to post it publicly any more because of superstition). You gotta see the Tie Break set in BRA v CHN!


    I think Brazil dealt with China pretty well

  • The Chinese team just had a narrow escape in the match against the Brazilian team yesterday. The win was too close for any comfort, it just could end up in the other way. Had CHN taken the 4th set, the win would have been much more convincing.


    The two teams now should regard each other as the most formidable opponent. Anyhow among the world's Top-4 teams: BRA CHN SRB USA, or Top-7 if expanded to also cover the RUS NED ITA, competitions are pretty close, don't see a clear edge of one team over the others, esp. among the Top-4.


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

  • Judging from Brazil's current performance, I think they will once again be the contender for gold in Tokyo. This new team managed to drag the Olympic gold medalists team to 5th set, and gave a convincing fight. It is interesting to see how they will develop even more in the future.


    Gabi is a very welcomed addition to this team as she is the most stable passer and has crazy back-court defensive skills. Sort of like Jaque.

  • Iwasaka strikes me as the best MB Japan has when she rotates to the backcourt.


    At the beginning I actually thought it was a funny way to say that she is good only when the libero is in, so that she actually sucks :lol: :aww: then I kept reading and realized how stupid I was :rolll:



    ( I`m just being funny).


    Thank God you specify it, I would have never guessed :lol:


    Ok, I did my best to explain our position, there's nothing else I can say about it to make you understand...
    But I want to add that I wouldn't be here if I didn't care about the tournament. Yes, I'm not following it properly since my team isn't playing and the timetable doesn't help, but I'm interested in it.
    And I will be even more interested in the male version, for obvious reasons.
    So, I do care about it, just not as much as I care for the ECh.




    You gotta see the Tie Break set in BRA v CHN!


    I was finally able to watch it (plus the end of the 4th)! If I hadn't known the final outcome, I would have thought 'ok, Brazil will won it!' with no doubt!
    Very good job by China (Zhu and serve), even if in their come back they were helped by few errors by Brazil!


    I'm eager to have more suggestions about what to watch, since I don't have time to watch them all :(

  • Just start to watch the replay of the USA v CHN match....


    oh my gosh... how could the Japanese announcer (in English language) pronounce the Chinese player's names in so bizarre ways, way worse that his many Western counterparts in this task.


    Quite bizarre for the Eastern neighbour, which is still using the borrowed characters from the Chinese writing system (the Japanese call it Kanji writing system).


    Very awful pronunciation to the level of uncomprehensible! Yaks yaks ?( :down:


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

  • But Japan is the reigning Asia Champion :whistle: ...

    Yes, but the teams for this competition were already chosen before this year's Asian Championship when China were still champions :whistle:

  • They are just pronouncing the names in Japanese since it is easier I guess. Its very hard to pronounce Chinese names correctly in English for non native speakers.

  • ... among the world's Top-4 teams: BRA CHN SRB USA, or Top-7 if expanded to also cover the RUS NED ITA ...


    I am so going to bookmark this post for a revisit after the World Championship next year. :whistle:


    I can see where you're coming from. I sort of "feel" it too, but it's not based on anything more than "feeling", is it? Current rankings and past results of actual games played don't support it.


    Not trying to pick a fight, just doing my sports enthusiasm job of sticking up for the team I like. You know who that is

  • ...
    To me the WGCC is just random. I mean why are Japan and Korea here? Why not just do a competition between the 4 continental champions, it would make a lot more sense


    Indeed Japan is an ideal host for a tournament like this.


    They are an excellent host, with the first-class facilities, having good, supportive audience that love volleyball so providing good tournament atmosphere, and basically the host is considered as a neutral zone... an excellent host yet not a title contender itself.


    If hosted by any other title contender some may comment... oooohhhh such a home-court advantage makes that X team the winner and so on.... :P :rolll:


    Thailand is also an ideal venue to host the tournament. Ideally the champion of the African Confederation should have been the 5th team playing here however the quality gap is still too far to give a good show. Or the 5th team can be taken from the rest of TOP-7 [SRB ITA NED] but in that case the host can be the bottom team, which ain't nice either. Therefore that "honour" is granted to KOR :) I guess this team will be the only one with no win.


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

  • an excellent host yet not a title contender itself.


    Oh man, you're killing me! And you're so reasonable about it. :mad:


    :super:

  • My only problem is Japan get to host everything. They are good hosts but I'd like to see hosting duty be spread around a little more.


    I can see where you're coming from. I sort of "feel" it too, but it's not based on anything more than "feeling", is it? Current rankings and past results of actual games played don't support it.

    I'd say Russia are better than Italy, Holland and Japan and close to the "Top 4."


    Those next 3 teams are all pretty close and I think Turkey can be at the same level as well by 2018

  • Is it just me or does the FIVB site refuse to show the last day's schedule:


    http://grandchampionscup.2017.women.fivb.com/en/schedule


    (closing snarky comment on FIVB)

  • Russia vs USA later today will be a possible battle for bronze. If RUS wins, they will only have one tough match versus China, and USA will still have Brazil and Japan. I don't see Russia beating China (not by a longshot), but of course USA can still win the rest of their games but is unlikely judging from their current performance. Let's see if USA girls can stop the power-hitting duo of Goncharova-Kosheleva :box:

  • thanks, sitenoise, for your kind offer.


    i'm now watching the remainder of the BRA x CHN match. almost getting to the end. it's funny how CHN demolished BRA in 2nd set, then BRA pretty much is doing the same to CHN in set 3, but then CHN puts in all the reserves (except for zhu ting), and the reserves start fighting back and almost catch up with BRA.


    yes, height is not everything but CHN players are not just tall, they have good skills for the most part. RUS and DOM are also tall but not as skilled. but BRA MBs are really great blockers. we all knew adenizia could be a monster blocker, but bia is showing she can too.


    and tandara -- did she always hit this hard? she is amazing from the back row and from everywhere. she makes few errors and hits so hard. and all those years, she was just sheilla's backup, so we never saw how hard she could hit.

  • Yeah, she's always been this strong. She's been one of the (if not the) best scorers of Brazilian league for several seasons now.
    She plays as OH in Osasco but still hits the same.