2015 World Cup - Japan - 8/22

    Quote from Emil

    And Koto blocked Kosheleva :D


    As a return favor to the facial she got :D


    Congrats Russia! That turned out to be a hard-fought match but they managed to prevail and emerged victorious!

    Congrats to Russia, but their play hasn't been convincing. Kosheleva is superb, you can see she's the only one who is not exhausted from WGP. But she alone can't win Russia the ticket, if they don't play better than today they'll end up in 4th place.

    The fight Japan put to Russia is something amazing. They were heroic, making 30 cm taller players struggling that much! :white: :obey:


    Congratulations to Russia for the win. And bigger congratulations to Japan for the struggle.

    Congratulations to Russia to win such tough game.
    it seems Serbia and Japan are relatively underrated. there should be top 5 of the tournament.
    the both have big chance to get certain good results, even direct qualification to Rio.

    i may not be the tallest,
    the fastest, or the strongest,
    but at least i can do one thing better than anyone else,
    to be me...

    The JPN team fight quite amazingly, they lost in five games with razor thin margin!


    And the RUS team are not as strong as many might have perceived!


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

    Quote from Canter


    i mean winning a tournament makes you always lose your energy and motivation..even such a professional team like Usa


    I think it's not winning WGP but being afraid of losing WC that is killing US. Too much burden for a Champ to defend the title. But I think it is not over yet, we will see.

    I've never been a big fan of defensive volleyball like Japan's and I underestimated them after the horrible WGP performance, but today they totally proved that they are totally different at home with this massive crowd. IMO Koto is an outstanding setter, she's the player who made russian blockers useless today, fast sets to Koga and Saori, too bad that she didn't have any decent MBs to use.


    Poor match by Russia, totally agree with Mattias about Kosheleva, the others didn't convince me at all, perhaps except Scherban who played great in attack. Kosianenko is exhausted, I hope Marichev lets Startseva and Malykh or Isaeva play tomorrow. I've never seen such useless and weak blocks by Russia before. The only reason they got the win today is Kosheleva to be quite frank.

    Quote from Emil

    I've never been a big fan of defensive volleyball like Japan's and I underestimated them after the horrible WGP performance, but today they totally proved that they are totally different at home with this massive crowd. IMO Koto is an outstanding setter, she's the player who made russian blockers useless today, fast sets to Koga and Saori, too bad that she didn't have any decent MBs to use.


    I agree. Manabe's fault here. He keeps leaving home the only 2 "tall" MBS Japan has got (Iwasaka and Araki).


    Talking about Koto, I feel sorry for her. She needed 3 outstanding seasons in Hisamitsu Springs to take some steps in NT at the age of 33. This is what happens when you have in front of you a phenomenal player, like Takeshita was. What I like the most about Chizuru is her face when she plays, so quiet, so focused, so in control. Great add, waiting for Miyashita's explosion.

    i found Serbia better than Russia...lets wait and see if Serbia can beat Russia or not?


    it seems to me Goncharova plays better when she is only the leader player in the team....when Gamova or Koshelva is in the team she cant(doesnt want to? ) show her best

    Looking at the stats for Russia, they are so dependent on Kosheleva and Obmochaeva today. Against Japan, you can win doing that due to the height factor of the Japanese block. Can these girls take that much responsibility with this long a tournament? I don't know if that's possible against China or USA.


    For the USA, it should have been a win today, but I will take a point. Those 5 set points will be important down the road, of course a win would have been better. If USA beat China tomorrow, I feel good for their chances.


    Serbia has to be happy with the win, but they are already 3 points behind Russia in 2nd. They will need to beat Russia to have a chance to get the ticket to Rio.


    China if they beat the USA will basically have their ticket punched. They'd only have to play Russia and Japan and could even lose a match and still qualify.


    Japan, got points by going 5 sets. I will take this loss as a positive, Saori scored a ton, which Japan had not seen all year. Riho Ohtake did a great job today for Japan getting 11 points, but the middles just do not give Japan much. Japan is known not to set the middles as much as the outsides, so the opponents like to cheat off the middles. Manabe needs to fix this offensive quirk. Koga is crazy with 11 points in 2 sets (final numbers had not come in when writing this).

    Simply Kosheleva is that kind of player who can outshine everyone with her game, passion and fire on court. Goncharova is more like a silent leader, so quiet; expecially when she carries the team on her shoulders. The only one who can turn her on is Gamova. :rolll:

    Quote from ravens#7

    I agree. Manabe's fault here. He keeps leaving home the only 2 "tall" MBS Japan has got (Iwasaka and Araki).


    Talking about Koto, I feel sorry for her. She needed 3 outstanding seasons in Hisamitsu Springs to take some steps in NT at the age of 33. This is what happens when you have in front of you a phenomenal player, like Takeshita was. What I like the most about Chizuru is her face when she plays, so quiet, so focused, so in control. Great add, waiting for Miyashita's explosion.


    Some japanese user said that Iwasaka had refused Manabe's invitation, I don't know about Araki's absent though, they could have been very helpful at least in blocking I think.


    Totally agree about Koto, she's not at all young anymore, but somehow I hope she makes it to the olympics next year. I really liked another japanese setter, don't remember her name, she played in Montreux cup. Japan is sort of gifted when it comes to setters, but their lack of height hurts them...

    do you know if Japanese coach especially doesnt choose tall japanese players due to his system or he cant find tall ones in the country ?


    new japanese players like Kogaand the others are good players but all of them are the same style players...Japan needs different kind of players like tall ones maybe etc..all the japenese are technically are good but the same style players

    Thank you for explaining on Cuba team. I had guessed earlier their setback might have been caused by the socioeconomic matters. Among many other things it surely takes substantial financial resources to build and maintain a competitive team, the underlying support system and the entire domestic competition.


    “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

    4 block points total in 5 sets from all Russian MBs is downright horrible. Orlova's block is only effective against slower, taller teams, but against fast teams like Japan, she is useless. Fetisova should have been starting MB for this match.


    Re Goncharova, I do not think she minds if another player shares the same "spotlight" with her. You can see she and Kosheleva have such amazing chemistry on and off the court. Of course with Gamova's case it's different :lol: