Japanese team lost three matches against U.S team in USA Volleyball Cup. 1:3, 1:3, 2:3. I don't worry about it, i think that Masayoshi Manabe know what to do (or I hope that). In first match (July 10) the best player was Ishida, who got 18 points! The third match was the most excited. It was so good match by Yukiko Ebata (24 points), Saori Kimura (23 points) and... Risa Shinnabe (13 points).
You can read about it http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball. Matches you can watch http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Events/International/2013-USA-Volleyball-Cup-with-Japan/Video. What do you think about them?
In my opinion, Ebata was not the best player for the third match. Her defense was very lacking and her offense was ok at best. Honestly I think a lot of the Japanese offense not succeeding is because of the setters. Hashimoto's sets to the outside die very quickly and they have a very up-down trajectory while Miyashita's sets are very tight to the net and sometimes cannot get to the ball (lazy?) so she does a lot of bump-setting. I think if the setters are trained better then Japan will play better. Risa and Saori both had very good defense in the match.