Olympic Games - London 2012 Women (qualification process)

Quote from Anton1989

Just to make things clear, Xue Ming is playing now for China against Italy in their friendly games against each other, and doing very well. There is no reason for her being outside the OG-squad. Wang Yimei is doubtful, maybe she will play, maybe not, according to the reports.

She wasn't playing for a long time because of injury. I didn't know that she has already came back. Thanks for clarification.

Quote from serdar

She wasn't playing for a long time because of injury. I didn't know that she has already came back. Thanks for clarification.

It wasn't injury, she had problems with the heart. I also didn't know that she's back now but I'm glad to hear about it

A lot of "newbies" today on this thread !
Amazing

Quote from Canter

Yukiko Ebata...come to Turkey someday! but a few years later not now

yes Canter, this is a very good idea !
First Yukiko could come to Cannes
and then to Turkey

Quote from Anton1989

Just to make things clear, Xue Ming is playing now for China against Italy in their friendly games against each other, and doing very well. There is no reason for her being outside the OG-squad. Wang Yimei is doubtful, maybe she will play, maybe not, according to the reports.

Xue Ming doesn't go to Italy, she is in Beijing now. I am sorry to say that her chance in OG-squad is very low...

Quote from Anton1989

Then Im sorry

I read in this thread: Friendly Matches

In the stats report from Italy and China a player named Xu scored 17p, I thought it was her, bad by me.

Then I can still assert my idea

Quote from Matthias

I just watched 4th and 5th set again and I still don't have a good feeling about the match It just seems whenever Japan had the chance of coming back, they made a stupid mistake...

well..this situation occurred against russia too

Quote from StarNight

Well medal is the last thing i will think during Olympics.I will support them step by step.I trust our all girls and i am sure they will do their best at London but the fact all people over world will expect lots of things from their countries so the pressure will be high for all teams not only for Turkey.Olympics is a really hard area even 10-15 times harder than EQT so being strong and healthy will not be enough for medal also you have to be so lucky in most of aspects like groups.That's why i support Group A since the begging of WQT coz i know our girls play play-offs much better than group stages.You know in last ECH we were almost going back to home after Croatia match For me all teams have smiliar chances to advance QF from Group B (%16,65 ) whereas it was almost %100 to advance from Group A.We turks love play with risks but i don't like risks so much,maybe it's coz i borned in Germany and have German mentality hehe

StarNight, you are talking partly like coaches giving ideas to the media still, i believe you need to think with wider point of view. Seriously, you think it is all about advancing to the quarter final games or in different aspects, will you be ok after Turkey reaching the quarter finals if we consider the teams' performance?

Quote from TheUSAFAN

I didn't watch the match earlier and pretty much believed what people said but after watching the 5th set I am kind of surprised. I didn't see anything that looked remotely like throwing the match. 2 of the 4 service errors by Japan were VERY close to being in. They were still going after balls on defense and not giving up, and on the replays of Serbia's blocks they looked well-positioned with little options for the Japanese attackers.

Did you believe yourself while you were writing this message? Maybe strange but i realized whenever people discuss about anything you take the role to defend opposite.

Today both Japan and Serbia were the role players to perform FIVB’s directives if you ask me. It is not about these countries, it is all about the continental balance. FIVB today was about to drown in its own ridiculous rule after unexpected results of Asian teams. Then, with a calling from someone giving the directions we clearly witnessed a game in company with a group of pawns in manipulative movements. Those teams could be other countries. For example, if Russia and Korea were in such a position, no doubt, everything would be the same except the name of the countries.

Watch the 5th set (which is only 15 minutes) and tell me when Japan is purposely making errors to throw the match.

Read the messages in the last 10 pages, please. Also, it is not hard to realize how Japan players push the level decreasing button.

I've already read them but I'd like to hear your "expert" opinion where there is evidence to support your assertion if you think they are so obvious.

You read them and no answer for any of them.

Expert? Who is expert? It is all about losing willingness on purpose. No need to be expert for this observation.

Answer for what? I watched the match and I didn't see any obvious signs of Japan throwing the match. As I already said, in the 5th set a lot of their errors were very close and Serbia made some big plays. If you want to see an obvious match throw watch the Bulgaria-Brazil WCH 2010 match. You can't point to specific plays because it's much easier to maintain this FIVB-conspiracy theory.

I didn't watch the match you mentioned so no idea about it. Also, I always hate this kind of conspiracy theory, but it can be clearly seen as long as i follow the FIVB tournaments we will probably not be saved from it

I think the reason why many believe that Japan threw this game away was the fact that Japanese players are highly passionate especially in front of their home crowd but in this 5th set it seems to me that even if the opponent have a big lead and in the match point stage they do not show that they are bothered.

Quote from Anton1989

TheUSAFAN

I remember you wrote about that it was normal Japan felt relaxed after qualified to OG, but I just dont agree with that, and it is my biggest reason to think the match was fixed from the start.

The thing is that Japan played in front of 10.000 spectators and just watch the game and see how much they still was screaming and supporting their team to win, even after 3.set. Japan has always played extremly motivated in front of their homecrowd no matter if it "doesnt count", just take USAxJapan game in last World Cup as a example. I just cant see them lose their motivation in the way they did in a normal way, its not their behaviour.

I'm glad you brought the WC up because it proves my point even more. The Americans could have won the gold medal at the WC but they already qualified for the Olympics regardless of whether they won or lost. They clearly were less motivated than in previous matches and were swept in three. As far as Japan is concerned, The situations couldn't be more different. First, Japan had NOTHING to lose at the World Cup when they played the USA. Whether they won or lost the final match didn't make a difference on whether they qualified for the Olympics. It's very easy to play well when there is nothing on the line. They also played extremely well the entire match and it was a sweep not a 5-set match. You cannot compare that whatsoever to this match where there was TREMENDOUS pressure to qualify on Japan. Once the team won the two sets the match clearly meant less for Japan because there is no title in this event. I will ask you as well, where in the match can you point to areas where they intentionally played poorly or unmotivated? Also what benefit would Japan reap from throwing the match?

And if you want to see a REAL thrown match please watch this: