having Miyashita + Shinnabe, Koga + Ishii on the same court again will be a dream come true.
I plan on getting really long-winded about this over in the Japanese NT thread, but right now I'm not convinced Sarina Koga and Yuki Ishii share the court very well. Did you notice how awesome Yuki's defense was this last week without Koga on the floor?
I plan on getting really long-winded about this over in the Japanese NT thread, but right now I'm not convinced Sarina Koga and Yuki Ishii share the court very well. Did you notice how awesome Yuki's defense was this last week without Koga on the floor?
i don't really see it as the absence of Koga being the reason why. plus I always know Ishii can handle the back row so Koga can focus on killing the ball and vice versa. have they played together this year?
i don't really see it as the absence of Koga being the reason why. plus I always know Ishii can handle the back row so Koga can focus on killing the ball and vice versa. have they played together this year?
They played the first five matches of this tournament together. Not so well, imo. I don't know what's going on, but Yuki looked so much more alive this last week to me. I wonder why Yuki was has never been promoted as the new Saori (or whatever). She is so skilled. The camera loves her. And she can do an intelligent post match interview!
I don't want to overreact, but she went from untouchable -> to the bench -> to Home in three weeks. This is bad for her.
Maybe not. Maybe she has a small injury or a family matter.
Nabeya is back!
Japan Fanboy here
Japan beat Italy without Erika Araki, Sarina Koga, Miyu Nagaoka, Yuri Nabeya, (or Haruka Miyashita).
I understand most people here don't follow/care much about Japan, or have a strong notion of who their "A Team" is, but it's why I like them and why I've said: If you can only win with a special 6 or 7 players--You don't have a team.
Woah, someone should inform Golden State Warriors that they don't have a team!
I don't want to overreact, but she went from untouchable -> to the bench -> to Home in three weeks. This is bad for her.
Maybe not. Maybe she has a small injury or a family matter.
Nabeya is back!
what happened to her? i don't recall her performing THAT bad last week.
what happened to her? i don't recall her performing THAT bad last week.
She hasn’t been playing much last week. Only end of 2nd set and 3rd set against nt Argentina. But she still made 5 points during that. Honestly i still prefer koga over ishii. I dunno why ishii is always on court even if she gets too many errors.
Ishii can be a scoring machine but she is prone to error as well. But her back court defense is no joke tho. Maybe Koga is suffering from minor injuries?
Setter Gamza Alikaya comes back in replacing Aslihan Kilic for Turkey. Good decision. Aslihan Kilic seemed way too nervous whenever on court and scared to take responsibility. In her defense she probably had the least time out of all players to get a real connection individually with her teammates.
I don't want to overreact, but she went from untouchable -> to the bench -> to Home in three weeks. This is bad for her.
Maybe not. Maybe she has a small injury or a family matter.
Nabeya is back!
Haha, we gonna see that ghostly serve from her again. Her serve caused so many troubles to other teams
GER roster for this week:
S: Hanke, Kästner
OPP: Lippmann, Drewniok
OH: Geerties, Fromm, Poll, Stigrot, Orthmann
MB: Schölzel, Schwertmann, Vanjak 
(usually OH)
L: Dürr, Pogany
Very interesting move to try Vanjak as MB and I like it. She's a tall powerful player but a weak receiver, and considering our lack of MB attacks, it will interesting to watch a player who can actually attack well playing as MB. I thought Koslowski might try Orthmann as MB because she played that position in youth/junior categories, but I think on the one hand she probably doesn't want to return to that position and her reception skills are better than Vanjak's.
Display MoreGER roster for this week:
S: Hanke, Kästner
OPP: Lippmann, Drewniok
OH: Geerties, Fromm, Poll, Stigrot, Orthmann
MB: Schölzel, Schwertmann, Vanjak
L: Dürr, Pogany
Very interesting move to try Vanjak as MB and I like it. She's a tall powerful player but a weak receiver, and considering our lack of MB attacks, it will interesting to watch a player who can actually attack well playing as MB. I thought Koslowski might try Orthmann as MB because she played that position in youth/junior categories, but I think on the one hand she probably doesn't want to return to that position and her reception skills are better than Vanjak's.
I totally forgot about it, what happened to Maaren Apitz? I was very hopeful about her game. I think I never saw her and Hanke in the squad at the same time 
I totally forgot about it, what happened to Maaren Apitz? I was very hopeful about her game. I think I never saw her and Hanke in the squad at the same time
IMO Apitz is the best German setter, but she's not interested in playing for NT anymore.
what happened to her? i don't recall her performing THAT bad last week.
As mentioned, Koga only played a set and a half in Round 3. Her bags were already packed.
My spidey-sense has been telling me there's friction between Koga and Ishii. I've been commenting/speculating on it. Koga has been playing THAT bad. Think of how this went down: Nakada played them together the first week and tasked them with Reception. They both did poorly. They started week two against USA together and did poorly. Nakada switched to Uchiseto/Shinnabe for reception. Koga scored two points and went to the bench. Game 2/week 2 against Belgium, midway through the second set Koga quit on a play before it was over. That is really bad. Her train ticket was booked.
Who knows? Maybe a minor injury, maybe a family matter. But this was Koga's chance. It was her leadership to lose, and she lost it.
In spite of her errors, Ishii has been a much better court presence.
Koga versus Ishii. Ishii won.
I just noticed the FIVB site is offering P2 stats pdfs now. Those are the ones that don't offer anything more than is on their super lame-ass web site. But maybe it's sign of things to come. Can we get a P3 FIVB?
Brankica Mihajlović has been dealing with a knee injury for the last two weeks and it got worse in the match against Turkey. She's stayed in Belgrade to do some additional medical check-ups and get some more therapy and will be travelling to the Netherlands tomorrow. She'll be with the team, but it's not sure how much she'll play.
Mihajlović won't be playing this week due to injury. Who will be added to the roster to replace her?
It doesn't look like anyone will. 
Display More
As mentioned, Koga only played a set and a half in Round 3. Her bags were already packed.
My spidey-sense has been telling me there's friction between Koga and Ishii. I've been commenting/speculating on it. Koga has been playing THAT bad. Think of how this went down: Nakada played them together the first week and tasked them with Reception. They both did poorly. They started week two against USA together and did poorly. Nakada switched to Uchiseto/Shinnabe for reception. Koga scored two points and went to the bench. Game 2/week 2 against Belgium, midway through the second set Koga quit on a play before it was over. That is really bad. Her train ticket was booked.
Who knows? Maybe a minor injury, maybe a family matter. But this was Koga's chance. It was her leadership to lose, and she lost it.
In spite of her errors, Ishii has been a much better court presence.
Koga versus Ishii. Ishii won.
Who knows what is the real reason, only Nakada knows. We can only assume. I don’t really see Ishii being the leader of this team. I just hope her always on court since the start of this tournament will make her better. 
IMO Apitz is the best German setter, but she's not interested in playing for NT anymore.
Apitz is over 30 now, doesn't plan seriously for Olympic cycle until 2020 I think and wants times of rest, which is nearly impossible for NT players nowadays.
Murek took Mucha's place in Polish team for 4th week,
