Japan NT 2019 Women

Quote from Nghiphong

Oh so this coach was probably also behind the unbeaten squad with Nagaoka, Kotoe Inoue, Kawaii, Iwasaka, Akutegawa, Kodaira, Minemura etc who won the 2008 U19 Asia Championship and didnot drop a single set along the way. They destroyed the young China team with Ding Xia, Yang Jun Jing, Liu Xiao Tong, Zeng Chunlei etc at the final. But i highly doubt they can repeat this feat if these 2 squads ever meet again.

Ha! I just looked it up and indeed he was: 2008 Asian Junior Championships (Japanese Wiki). He also coached some of that group (without Nagaoka, Iwasaka, Inoue, etc.) the previous year at the 2007 World Youth Championship but they didn't do so well.

From his J-Wiki Profile it appears those were the only two times he's coached a National Squad prior to this year's U20. Those were Golden Years. As Coach of Higashi Kyushu Ryukoku he won five straight Gold Medals in the All Japan HS Championships - 2008 through 2012.

I have a feeling he might be better with kids than steely veterans. Not sure what Yuki Ishii or Risa would think of his airplane impersonation He may not be in line, or interested, in taking over the Senior NT. Time will tell.

With this U20 Squad, he either got lucky this group of kids came along (four of the starters are from the HS team that beat him last HS Championship), or he's brilliant. Or both. He picked that squad and stuck with them. When Nishikawa was clearly struggling at the beginning of the Gold Medal Match he took her out, but put her back in for Set 3 to finish the match. That was the decider.

I think if, say, Kumi Nakada were coaching this squad she would have played Nakagawa over Soga. I like Nakagawa but that would have spelled doom. Soga was so important in lifting the team

Coach Aihara is at the helm for at least one of the Friendly Matches against Taipei.

I've never actually seen an official NT organization refer to "A" and "B" teams. But there you have it. The "A" Team isn't spelled out yet (or who'll be the Dude or Dudette on the Sidelines) but the "B" Team is.

Coach Aihara's got a few "seniors" added to the U20 Squad for the B Team.

Setter:

• Nanami Seki (Toray) *
• Tamaki Matsui (JWCPE) 2019 Universiade main Setter *

Libero:

• Rena Mizusugi (Toray)

Middle Blocker:

• Nichika Yamada (NEC)
• Shion Hirayama (Hisamitsu)
• Kotomi Osaka (Toray) *
• Mai Irisawa (Hitachi Rivale) *

Wing Spikers:

• Miyu Nakagawa (Hisamitsu)
• Haruna Soga (NEC)
• Mayu Ishikawa (Toray)
• Yuki Nishikawa (JT Marvelous)
• Minami Nishimura (Okayama)
• Miwako Osanai (Hitachi Rivale) *
• Yuri Yoshino (Saitama Ageo) *

Two new setters, and the two high-schoolers (Araki and Miyabe) are gone. It's being broadcast on Fuji-TV so maybe we get a chance to see it somehow. I'm curious how V.League MB breakout phenom Mai Irisawa will stack up with Yamada and Hirayama. I'm still so high on the U20 Squad, intact, that I'd almost send them to Tokyo 2020

Source

ps - Not that it's important for these Friendlies but in case anyone is wondering about traveling with one libero, Minami Nishimura (Okayama NoSmilers) played libero with Higashi in High School.

Source just replaced that U20+ lineup that was posted with a post of the Usual Suspects of the Senior Team, which is, I think the same crew that played the NED Friendly. Araki is back, Tominaga still MIA. 17 players. Kumi Nakada punching the clock

Quote from Nghiphong

Gosh, i think this guy is really good at motivating speech, based on his always hyper mood, lol. FYI, his 2008 squad was always on fire, even Iwasaka was on her very rare beasty mode and scared the hell out of the young Chinese team.

Kumi Nakada used to be a greatly competitive, fierce and decisive player but i didn't see any of these characters at national team so far.

So this B team will take part in the Asia championship later this month in Korea?

These U20 players with Coach Aihara will play one of the two friendly matches with Chinese Taipei next weekend, not at the Asian Championship. Maybe Mayu Nakagawa will go, as she has played with the seniors already at Montreux and VNL.

I've re-watched most of the U20 WCh matches to get more feel about what he's doing, and it's funny. For the most part it seems like he and the players ignore each other When he's pumping his fists, or shouting at/for them, or running around like an airplane the players don't seem to notice. Conversely, if they're down five points at the end of a set he'll call a timeout and ignore the players Seems like the Japanese way.

In one of his post match interviews he said he's there to keep the players calm. His tablet people give them all their technical notes. Sometimes they play so well it makes him cry

Quote from Nghiphong

So this B team will take part in the Asia championship later this month in Korea?

Pardon my French, but Holy Funk! You were correct.
Japan is going to unleash Coach Aihara and his mostly U20 Squad at the Asian Championship

Source = JVA HOME ->International Convention of the 20th Asian Women's Championships-> Japan squad

This could be a misprint. It's the same as the "B Squad" that was posted for the Friendly match against Chinese Taipei. But it's there on the JVA site under "20th Asian Women's Championships". I have goosebumps.

Setter:

• Nanami Seki (Toray) *
• Tamaki Matsui (JWCPE) 2019 Universiade main Setter *

Libero:

• Rena Mizusugi (Toray)

Middle Blocker:

• Nichika Yamada (NEC)
• Shion Hirayama (Hisamitsu)
• Kotomi Osaka (Toray) *
• Mai Irisawa (Hitachi Rivale) *

Wing Spikers:

• Miyu Nakagawa (Hisamitsu)
• Haruna Soga (NEC)
• Mayu Ishikawa (Toray)
• Yuki Nishikawa (JT Marvelous)
• Minami Nishimura (Okayama)
• Miwako Osanai (Hitachi Rivale) *
• Yuri Yoshino (Saitama Ageo) *

It makes sense. I'm just happy they're going with the U20 Squad. Could have gone with the Universiade Squad. What a great gift to the U20 Girls. They get to play another tournament. I hope I get to see it.

Poor Sarina Koga, gets to sub in when the score is 24-12 No idea what's going on with her but she looks lost, dare I say even a little ostracized. Maybe Coach Nakata is hiding her until the Olympics. Yeah that's it.

I hate to think the career of someone so young and talented could crash and burn, but I guess it happens all the time

Only a terrible copy of the JPN v Taipei Friendly match has showed up, and it starts at the end of the 1st set. This is not acceptable

Koga is starting set 3 after Japan won the first two like 50–20. I guess it's safe I'm bad. I love Sarina. I just don't know how to process this

Miwako Osanai is playing OP. That's cool. Wish she had a better haircut

2019 Women's Volleyball International Friendly Match vs Chinese Taipei

August 10 (Sat)

Japan A Team ... 3 – 0 Chinese Taipei (25-10, 25-13, 25-17)

Sunday, August 11

Japan B Team ... 3 – 0 Chinese Taipei (25-9, 25-14, 25-21)

Re: the "Team B" friendly match against Taipei. According to this JVA article, Coach Aihara played the first set with Mayu Nakagawa, Yuri Yoshino, and Miwako Osanai (members of the A Team bench) as hitters. I'm a little disappointed in that. It seems scaredy-cat.

I hope when we get to the Asian Championship he has the confidence to start with his winners. But he may have his own psychological game plan strategy that's over my head.

I re-watched the High School Championships in honor of these kids getting the nod for the Asian Championship. They look sooo young, a mere eight months ago, especially Shion Hirayama and YOLO (aka Haruna Soga). YOLO played middle blocker lol.

Now ...

... YOLO's front and center of the receiving line. The Polish server is taking her first step in serve approach at this moment, and these kids, who came in first, second, and third in reception for the tournament, are standing there like "Yeah, come on, let's go. Gimme the ball".

Ridiculously confident

Found a very good quality video of the "adult" Friendly match between Japan and Taipei, in three parts:

My fingers are crossed the uploader will make the "kid" version available

ps edit - the videos are edited with occasional transitions the way that glorious NK youtuber used to do. This uploader joined on May 4 of this year ... I'm not going to try and look it up but that's about the time NK got busted and put on my misery. Happy days may be here again

OMG - I see this new youtuber has uploaded a dozen or so V.League matches, mostly Hisamitsu --which was N K's preference-- and then the 2012 High School Semifinal match between Shimokitazawa Seitoku and Higashi Kyushu Ryukoku --The era of Yurie Nabeya. A five set grudge match with COACH AIHARA on the sidelines

There is a god*

*and he uploads in 1080p

After opening a can of whoop ass on Shimokitazawa Seitoku Coach Aihara and Higashi went on to claim their 5th straight Gold Medal.

Here's Yurie Nabeya shaking hands with Riho Otake after winning the decider 18-16

I have cracked this case. It's N K for sure. I hope this good news turns out to be as good as I need it to be.

So ... Coach Aihara did about what I thought he would do in the opening Asian Championship match. I'm unable to view the match so I don't know how, when, or why the substitutions took place or whether both Liberos played or merely suited up.

First of all keep in mind that the Setter from the Champion U20 Squad, Tsukasa Nakagawa, is not here (had to get back to college?). She had played with the libero (Mizusugi), the OP (YOLO aka Soga), and the OH (Nishikawa) the last three years in High School and won the last two HS Championships. So they all knew one another and were comfortable and confident with each other. That's water under the bridge here but I think it helped them win three Tie Breakers in the U20 Tournament. Comfort and confidence go a long way as your level of the competition rises.

Interesting that the only College player on this squad is Setter Tamaki Matsui, and she's the Captain but didn't start.

Put it this way: if one of these new setters actually sets the ball to YOLO when she's doing one of her Fake Decoy swings from back court ... we're in trouble Probably not gonna happen but I worry . And I wonder how familiar they are with the weird ways that YOLO and MB Shion Hirayama play --sometimes up the middle sometimes from wide right. Just looking at the stats and not seeing it, it looks like the main setter here, Namami Seki, favored the left side of the court. I'm not sure If I approve of that but Mayu Ishikawa went 11/13 and Miwako 15/30.

Anyway, besides the setter the other change to the lineup is Miwako Osanai instead of Yuki Nishikawa at OH. I love Yuki and believe she was vital to the U20 Championship, but I also love Miwako. Yuki is taller by 5-6cm, and maybe better at back court attack and hitting off the block; Miwako has a bitchin' jump serve and hits a lot harder. Yuki is prone to an occasional brain fart or a grossly wild error, while Miwako gets blocked a lot when the sets are close to the net, where she likes them, and the blockers are waiting. They are both not great defensive players yet but their reception isn't bad (I'll bet Miwako was mostly hidden here as Yuki was in the U20)

I'm mostly glad, if not a little surprised, Coach stuck with the U20 MBs (Yamada and Hirayama) and didn't start Mai Irasawa, that tallest of players who had such a great year with Hitachi.

Also glad, if not a little surprised, Coach stuck with YOLO at OP over Miyu Nakagawa. Miyu is about 10cm taller, and on paper has more experience. She's been on the Senior NT the last two years while training with Hisamitsu. But she's no YOLO

An easy opening match I shouldn't read too much into.

I'm heartbroken being unable to view it

ps - For the record, if I was picking this team I would have drafted Misaki Inoue from Saitama to lead it as setter. She's brilliant, athletic and knows how to work with a group of diverse and beautifully unique attackers. Nothing against the two who are here. I like them too. But Misaki Inoue kicks bigger butt, imo

omg, lol ... look at the attendance for these matches:

I mean, Japan played the same time as Korea, but all those Korean fans coulda watched the China match afterwards.

Watching the score of the JPN v KAZ match go by at flashscore and this team did something the A Team seldom does: they were trailing by a couple points all set until after 20 and then they finished it. Three straight points from 22–23. Wish I could see it.

This pic from the AVC site shows Minami Nishimura in libero drag. She sub served/defended for Yuki Nishikawa in the U20

That answers half the question of who's libero-ing.

JPN 3–0 KAZ