2018 FIVB World Championship - Japan

    Calendario Terza Fase

    14 ottobre: Cina -Stati Uniti (ore 9.10), Giappone-Serbia (ore 12.20).

    15 ottobre: Olanda-Stati Uniti (ore 9.10), Italia-Giappone (ore 12.20).

    16 ottobre: Italia-Serbia (ore 9.10), Olanda-Cina (ore 12.20).



    I'm a bit annoyed we didn't get both matches at 12.20, to be frank...



    Japan plays home, it's obvious they would get prime time. At least we never had to wake up at 3 like the rest of the world!

    Quote from Kk15

    Oh fly, I just noticed that in the semifinal day there is also the final for the 5-6 place: first of all, how useless!! Second, I can't believe it's scheduled to be the THIRD match of the day, and not the first! That's insane, it would be unacceptable even if the host will play that match.

    Unfortunately i watched only few games in this tournament as i'm not the type of person who wake up at 4 am. However i thought at least i could watch the F6, both semis and the final match expecting it will be all scheduled at 8.10 am or 11.20 am.

    But now to my surprise i see that the 5-6 is the last game of the day :what:.

    If it really happens i guess it will be a first.!? Even in a friendly Montreux tournament i have never seen something like this.

    Quote from vabo

    Japan plays home, it's obvious they would get prime time. At least we never had to wake up at 3 like the rest of the world!

    of course it's obvious (and right), but the day Italy plays at 9.10, Japan isn't playing at all.

    OK, Ned (as first of the pool) may deserve a 12.20 match as well, but in this way we have a shortened time between the two matches. So imho it would have been better to schedule one pool at one time and the other at the other time...


    Edit: obviously the timetable is like that because China always get the prime time if Japan is not, not because they wanted to be fair to the two 'pool heads' ^^


    Grey

    I really hope it'll change even if Japan will play that match... probably it's just a temporary timetable...

    Quote from Grey

    If it really happens i guess it will be a first.!? Even in a friendly Montreux tournament i have never seen something like this.

    It wouldn't be the first time. WCh '06 also ended with the 5-place play-off game. Japan played in it, of course. Russia, Brazil and Serbia had to wait until it was over before they got their medals.

    The attendance has been very low even for Japanese matches they are not sold out, part of that is because of all the natural disasters happening there,,,so I won`t judge ( But I remember in 2006 it was the same thing).


    So the good thing about Japan in the Final 6 is that we should ( at least I hope) see a bigger crowd....Assuming Japan won`t be in the final...I`m afraid we might see a half empty arena...even for the semis....another good thing that Japan will be playing a 5th place game as this would help bringing fans in.


    Some of these games does not even feels like it is a WCH....instead they seems more like a funeral.

    Quote from StefanS

    The German NT were empty both in head and physcially, aside from super athlete Louisa Lippmann, who scored 14 points alone once more in three short sets. They were very tired in ninth match, about 24 hours after the hard four setter against Puerto Rico. The Dominicans had three easy sets yesterday and were physically superiour in every regard.


    well, i'm glad for DOM to show what they can do. also happy for PUR to show they can still beat 2nd-tier european teams in spite of all the problems they have faced ... years ago, PUR beat consistently GER, POL, CZE and BUL... PUR really needs better coaching and more support...

    Quote from ossubtus

    ogonna? boy, that's like 10-15 years ago!!!!! (wrong team too!) :-)

    OMG I didn't even notice that's what I typed lol! Meant Egonu of course!!

    Quote from pope

    Some of these games does not even feels like it is a WCH....instead they seems more like a funeral.

    Of the many reasons Japan should chill on hosting duties this is the one that frustrates me most. It's embarrassing.


    AND ... The Japan games didn't have much, if any, "Here comes the Boom!" nonsense, I assume because the crowd was big enough they didn't have to fake enthusiasm noise. Get a crowd in there and do away with the the annoying BOOMS

    Well after watching JPN-BRA match, I hope all the conspiracy theorists would stop blaming SRB and accept the fact that BRA simply did not deserve to be there. They had all the chances to change things but they didn't. The fall of BRA was not hard to guess. Ze relied on the golden generation for many years, playing with the same small pool just to win everything possible. It worked for that era but if you don't keep up bringing new talents from younger generations and make a smooth transition, it is obvious that they will stuck after golden generation retires.


    I am rooting for ITA for this tournament, they have an amazing group of talented youngsters with experienced Bosetti and De Gennaro. They are similar to TUR in that sense (youngsters with Eda and Simge) but simply their youngsters are way more talented than Turkish ones. In theory, ITA can dominate next 3 Olympic games with the same roster (replacing Lucia with her sister and a new libero). This young team already achieved more than they were expected, so every win from now on will be a huge success. I hope they will play the final against SRB.


    CHN seems to be even more fragile than OG due to their shaky reception line. They need a player like Hui against good server teams. Gong is playing way better than she played in VNL but still she is too inconsistent to be starting Opp a top team like CHN. I think Li Yingying should be trained as Opp to help this team. She has more potential as Opp than OH with such a bad receiving technique. The problem of this team, next to a weak reception line, the servers are quite bad in general (except Yuan)


    I don't like American team in this tournament. Everybody is showing less than what they are capable of. Akinradewo has never been a good blocker so if she is not used as a scoring player in a team, she will be very useless. In theory, Hill&Larson duo should most balanced OH duo in the world but both are quite bad at both attacking and reception. Opp is still a problem. Dixon is not showing anything special. They should play with Gibby instead. The only thing I like about this team is Robinson. She plays like a very experienced libero and she is one of the best of this tournament so far, she is very consistent especially at reception. I hope she can show such good performance in Vakifbank this year. All in all, I won't be surprised if they will be out of semis with a defeat against NED


    The most surprising team of this tournament was RUS. They have played very good in the absence of their star player. I really like Voronkova&Ilchenko I think they are a very balance OH duo and can serve to Russia for many years. Also Fetisova&Koroleva are great blockers. Considering the great performance of Startseva, this team could achieve a lot more with Goncharova. I hope she will recover soon. Only player I don't like was Galkina. If Malova will be back to her old level, this team will be medal contender again.

    a few observations:


    1) feel bad for RUS, which is not my favorite team, but they were playing well and had they been in pool E, things would have been different. they might have been in final 6.


    2) feel bad for the golden generation of THA. what brave spirit they have, facing and beating much taller teams. they took US and RUS to 5 sets, it was never easy to beat them. onuma, wilavan, malika, nootsara, pleumjit are all over 30 and we may not see them in 2020 (if they qualify)...


    3) the debacle that was SRB's last 2 matches makes me not want to see them on the podium. contrast that to BRA, which after being eliminated, got mad and said, we're gonna fight and win this, even though it didn't mean anything anymore. i hope SRB finishing 3rd in their group will bite them in the backside...


    4) excited for le ragazze... i think ITA is playing like a well-oiled machine right now. hope i didn't jinx them!