2015 World Cup - Japan - 8/22

Dixon is so quick in front of the setter! That a very good combination

2015 World Cup - Day 1

Dominican Republic 0 x 3 Russia (15 - 25, 18 - 25, 18 - 25)
Best scorer: Obmochaeva (RUS), 24 points
Best player: Obmochaeva (RUS)
Video, Stats

USA 3 x 0 Korea (25 - 15, 25 - 22, 25 - 15)
Best scorer: Akinradewo (USA), 15 points
Best player: Hill (USA)
Video, Stats

Cuba 3 x 1 Kenya (27 - 25, 25 - 23, 12 - 25, 25 - 22)
Best scorer: Moim (KEN), 26 points
Best player: Gracia (CUB)
Video, Stats

Serbia 1 x 3 China (25 - 19, 23 - 25, 15 - 25, 19 - 25)
Best scorer: Zhu (CHN), 24 points
Best player: Zhu (CHN)
Video, Stats

Peru 3 x 0 Algeria (25 - 16, 25 - 13, 25 - 16)
Best scorer: Ortiz (PER) and Kasri (ALG), 12 points
Best player: Olemar (PER)
Video, Stats

Argentina 0 x 3 Japan (16 - 25, 19 - 25, 12 - 25)
Best scorer: Koga (JPN), 14 points
Best player: Nagaoka (JPN)
Video, Stats

It's so funny how almost everyone here hated Alisha only a few months ago...and then after the WCH title she became like this exceptional setter, who should be the main setter no matter what

Quote from Sidney

It's so funny how almost everyone here hated Alisha only a few months ago...and then after the WCH title she became like this exceptional setter, who should be the main setter no matter what

Well, opinions about some players can change drastically just after few games. Some Americans can be awful during club season and later they bright like diamonds... great example was Kim Hill - she played poorly being in Sopot and later she became MVP of WCH 2014

Results today went as I expected them.

For Japan, Saori had a pretty good game today. Spiking a little bad, but passed well and 4 aces.
Japan's middles will kill this team. 2 blocks! 9 kills, but 6 errors. If the middle is making that many hitting mistakes, it takes the middles out of the offense and they can sit on either outside hitter. Against Argentina, it should not matter, but against Russia, China, Serbia and US it will.

If Japan take the first set against Russia, they will have the crowd really behind them (they are playing at home, but getting a lead helps them more) and could have a chance to win, but I don't think that they will beat Russia.

Serbia in my mind has to win against the USA. They will have a easier road the rest of the way with only Russia and Japan as their most difficult future match if they beat the USA. If they lose to the USA, they would be 2 matches back of China and USA already. They would need a lot of help just to even get close to the Top 2.

China's going to start the backups tomorrow against Algeria and win easily.

The main reason why the USA started their lineup today was to see if it needed to be adjusted for the more difficult matches against Serbia and China. If the USA beats Serbia and China, they'll be 3-0 with only Russia and Japan left to play of the most difficult teams. The USA could bring Harmotto in instead of Dixon, but its Karch's call.

FYI, about 25% of argentina's population is of italian descent.

whatever happened to malagurski, is she playing badly that SER didn't take her?

I think Mihajlovic played quite well and the whole SER team is very promising but need to be more stable. I hope they play well vs US.

I think Mihajlovic plays quite well but the whole team need to be more stable. Keep focused vs US

i think people's opinions were also based on the experimental fast-setting tempo that kiraly wanted for this team and during the WGP and other tournaments in 2013/14, the US performance was not so solid, and there were often really bad connections, so of course people blamed glass (and karch). i think the team really perfected their style at the WCh so now everyone loves it, but before, not so much...

Quote from kondzio

Well, opinions about some players can change drastically just after few games. Some Americans can be awful during club season and later they bright like diamonds... great example was Kim Hill - she played poorly being in Sopot and later she became MVP of WCH 2014

China Roster against Algeria

the main players (Zhu Ting, Zhang Changning, Yuan Xinyue, Lin Li) rest for tomorrow.
best substitutes (Yan Ni, Ding Xia) with big performance yesterday also have the priority to prepare for the game vs USA.
but the main players (Shen Jingsi, Yang Junjing, Zeng Chunlei) who played badly or not very well consistently were sent on court for the further development.

Liu Yanhan + Liu Xiaotong
Yang Junjing + Zhang Xiaoya
Shen Jingsi + Zeng Chunlei
Wang Mengjie (L)

Liu Yanhan was awarded as MIP of the match. She performed well in both of the first two matches. today, her attack efficiency is 10/10=100%, with a total score of 11, one point behind Zeng Chunlei.
Zeng Chunlei needs to concentrate more and quickly get used to the rhythm of the game, her attack efficiency of 8/14 = 57%, is much better than yesterday (11%), but will not enough to deal with the US.
Wei Qiuyue was first time sent in for all three sets, but her movement and jumping seem not smooth and strong she can only participate some parts of the game i think.

we cannot talk about Algeria NT technically and tactically because they are lacking of many basic sections of volleyball. but i love their honeylike smile on every players face and they are goodlooking indeed with proper makeup and posh hairstyle.

its interestng to read the history of volleyball to break.

China steamroll over Algeria 3-0 (25-5, 25-11, 25-8 ) in Matsumoto. And although the first set was not a World Cup record score, the final count definately is. At 75-24 for a total of 99, it beats the previous record of 102 points when Italy beat Tunisia 3-0 (25-11, 25-13, 25-3) on 10 November 1999 in Sendai.
(That's counting since the introduction of the running score system).

new record of game score (99 points) is now broken through by China. and the record of the single set scores (28 pts) will go on holding by Italy.

the other game, Argentina also finish their match in straight sets, downing Cuba 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-23).
the win will go down in history as Argentina's first ever over Cuba in the history of the World Cup.

congratulations to argentines! now we can expect Cuba, Kenya and Algeria will have a very fierce struggling at the bottom of the leading board.

Argentina, Dominican Republic and Peru seems will fight for the upper stage from the rank of 7-9.

Korea probably will try to get good ranking but they need to manage Serbia and Japan first.

at the moment, i dont wanna say it too early before i watch the game between SRB and USA, but i really believe only 3 teams (USA, RUS and CHN) will have chance to grab the 2 vancancies of Rio OG.

Thanks pappi for the info on the weird yet interesting various scoring records. They simply show some teams are really out of competition!

I am stunned by the reality on how far the Cuba team has been down to the bottom, from a nation on top of volleyball (with the most gold medals on the Women's World Cup) down to the insignificant level today. Wonder what happens with their volleyball team within the last decade.

Well, I enjoy reading your many postings. Quite informative, balanced and well-thought! Much appreciated!!

For those volleyball fans who care to seek the higher quality of World Cup videos at 1080 HD, check them at this uploader: FIVB Volleyball - the official channel of the International Volleyball Federation at the google's youtube. So far they already uploaded some World Cup vids.


https://www.youtube.com/user/videoFIVB/videos

Other uploaders to my knowledge just provide the 720 HD resolution though they do the uploads fast and extensively.

Quote from samsara

Thanks pappi for the info on the weird yet interesting various scoring records. They simply show some teams are really out of competition!

I am stunned by the reality on how far the Cuba team has been down to the bottom, from a nation on top of volleyball (with the most gold medals on the Women's World Cup) down to the insignificant level today. Wonder what happens with their volleyball team within the last decade.

Well, I enjoy reading your many postings. Quite informative, balanced and well-thought! Much appreciated!!

you flatter me indeed! thank you for the compliment words to me.
my very first volleyball game when i was very young was the volleyball game in Barcelona 1992.
and when i was 11, the final game China vs Cuba in Atlanta was so impressive to me. China was beaten and i was beaten by volleyball completely.
but actually now i am not a pure fan of China volleyball.
as one of millions of volleyball fans, i would like to say some responsible and reliable words here.

i used to watch WGP final in Ningbo couple of years ago, and i had chance to say some words with regla torres.
at that time, cuba was rising with some young talents like sallas, palacios, castaneda simon, giel, r.sanchez, cleger.....
but more and more players were running away or leaving national team for reasons.

i heard most likely that the talents could not be allowed to join other nation's leagues and blocked by the national sport authority. the only way to go abroad is leave national team.
this is the result of cuba volleyball. of course it is only one simple reason. there is a complexity and mixture of hundreds of reasons for descent of Cuba volleyball.
the outdated comcept of training and low salary of cuba players are also big problems.

Interesting how in this match we have future teammates from the 3 top Turkish teams playing against each other: Larson-Boskovic, Harmotto-Mihajlovic, Hill-Rasic.. also we have Gibby-Stevanovic, Akinradewo-Popovic..

Mihajlovic really needs to be aware who the blockers are rather than putting all of her energy when she hits. Good game by both teams so far.

Serbia serving strong, Hill struggling. Also Alisha not setting the middles much, this block on Harmotto was their second middle attempt I think

Serbia with very good serving and blocking, but the main question is how long can they keep it on this level?