Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2019-2020

Neither of my Higashi girls has rostered up yet for PFU four games in: Kanon Sonoda (S) or Saki Goya (OH). PFU's main setter didn't roster up for game four, so that means either Sonoda has some injury, or something, or she's not practicing well enough to get suited up as the backup setter. I refuse to believe the latter. She's U20 Gold, baby. Very frustrating to never know what's going on.

If you followed these pages last year you know that Okayama v Hitachi is one of the best things to happen to this volleyball fan. Foreigner Free Fun! Long rallies and scrappy D. I'm so depressed I have to wait 30 days to watch it (without spoiler alerts )

I did find Set three of Hisamitsu v Himeji at the Passionate Volleyball Porn site. It's a good clear stream with commentary and is a nicely played set. I still believe in Himeji. They only scored 10 points in set 2 but they're playing the Japan NT for crying out loud. Set 3 was pretty good. I'm in love with the squirt setter, Nao Horigome. I can really see her becoming Takeshita v2. She's built just like her. She has to work on the quick ones to her MBs, but she hits them fine when they slide and seems on the money with most of her sets elsewhere. It's the hitters who aren't delivering. Maybe she's bad at seeing the other side and is putting her attackers up against too many blockers. I have a hard time seeing that. She's a great floor defender so we're BFF.

That VB is my Passion dude (I assume) needs to learn how to run a porn site. His streams can be really good but he just can't get to them, or get them up in a timely manner. That site may be our saving grace after no recovery from last year's Apocalypse.

Speaking of Hisamitsu, I really hope Ayano Kojima becomes their setter, soon. Losing Minami Higane to illness (or whatever--she retired because of it) was tragic. Erika Sakae has just never done it for me.

And here's something most all the Japanese players can learn from a veteran (who was on fire in that Set 3...

... how to wear your freaking hair! Damn. Even an unhappy Miyu Nagaoka in street clothes gets it:

Quote from brahmin

Instructions in Japanese on how to watch all matches.

https://twitter.com/wakky929an…/1186932433364516864?s=21

The best that I can make of that --which has also been on the V.League web site-- is that if you sign up for DAZN, and pay for a DAZN subscription, you don't have to pay for an additional VTV subscription to watch all the VTV matches. The problem with that is that DAZN is Japan only. That's my thing about DAZN not letting me pay them, ill-daughter and all, to watch the matches. Do you read it differently?

DAZN has a USA thing going on but it's all about boxing and martial arts. Japan V.League is not offered.

EDIT: I tried and tried with every VPN I could find to sign up at DAZN. No luck. I imagine that if you paid for a high end VPN it might work. The problem with the free ones (and the bad ones) is that they reveal that you are being proxied even if you are successfully masquerading as the country you need to be in. I read in DAZN's help section somewhere that they punt anything coming through a proxy. DAZN is ontop of this kind of thing because they are a worldwide broadcaster, and the reason that VPNs work for FIVB and VTV is that FIVB and VTV are children in this field compared to what DAZN is doing.

Highlights for week 2 are up at the V.League Youtube Channel. If you're interested in highlights but find navigating Japanese a hassle, I post the result tables with the stat links and links to the highlights when they become available in the second post of this thread.

This weeks pick is, of course, Okayama v Hitachi. Bodies flying everywhere, pinball machine plays, beautiful volleyball. You can get a look at Okayama's 186cm, 17 y/old high-schooler #15 Aoi An Furukawa --a reception/defense liability at this point but we'll see how she grows.

I'm glad Hitachi's Ruriko Uesaka is getting court time over Miwako Osanai at OH. I like Ruriko a lot and kind of soured on Miwako over the summer seeing her with the NT. Ruriko is better at reception and the back attack. Hitachi's OP Miyu Kubota is the toughest player in the V.League and she's batting 56.5% with a lot more swings than the middle blockers ahead of her in the rankings, although Saitama's OH Yuri Yoshino is ahead of her in % with fewer swings.

Quote from werka

Why isn't Annie Drews listed in any of the charts even just with her points, she is supposed to be 3rd best scorer overall?

Probably not enough sets yet. I think it's something like you have to have played in 70% (I really don't know) of all the sets your team has played. She missed the first two games. She'll be there after this weekend, I'm sure

Edit: yeah, it says something about 67-70% of something at the bottom of the page

Hannah Tapp to Hitachi Rivale

Source

Quote from brahmin

V.League announced franchise License levels for 2020-2021 season as of October 2019.

So Arisa Sato's team Ligare Sendai didn't make it but Forest Leaves is making a comeback

And Ami and Emi's Brilliant Aries made it to S1

Found a totally satisfying single roaming cam with crowd noise and drums of the Okayama v Hitachi match in three parts. The youtuber and their cam seem to incline toward attending the Hitachi, Okayama, and Himeji matches so far, which makes this a GREAT find for me.

Last year these two foreigner frees went 5 sets both times. Hitachi won them both. It's not a good sign for Okayama that they got swept in 3 sets here. They will play twice more this season. Okayama has to do better than two of the three teams: Hitachi, NEC, or Himeji to make the Final 8. Okayama beat Himeji in their first meeting but Himeji is going to get better as the season rolls on. Okayama are at just where they're at.

The person who shot the Hitachi v Okayama match definitely has experience shooting volleyball. The zoom-in on the server and then zoom-out and pan to follow the ball into play are second nature to them. Most importantly they know how to let the ball bounce from the left side of the screen to the right side, not try to follow the ball and keep it centered on the screen.

I don't think they necessarily have a preference for the teams I like. They probably just live in Saga, where the matches they've uploaded were played (I think). The viewing experience is far better than, for example, that of the V2 matches on VTV, and way way better than a betting site stream. Some of the timeouts and challenge waiting are edited out, and sometimes they're not, leaving the camera trained on one team or the other which lends an intimacy to the proceedings.

The match, Hitachi v Okayama, is by far the best watch of the year for me. By far far. These are the two best teams of the bottom half of the league. I guess that's my sweet spot. It's goofy and polite. No unhappy faces. No one hits the ball so hard it can't be returned, which makes for great rallies and crazy plays. Hitachi is better offensively, Okayama defensively. Makes for a good match up. Since it's a fan cam there is no score bug, so you never know what the score is. It doesn't matter who wins. It's the journey. It didn't look at all to me like Okayama lost in straight sets. If you like Japanese volleyball this match is must see stuff. Filled with the same fun, pinball machine plays, and "trying real hard" as last year's matches. (btw - neither Miyashita or Miya Sato played. Miyashita had a short sub spot but for the most part it was Wonder Woman and Captain Mizuki Ugajin vs Yuka Onodera.)

Other uploads from the youtuber: Hisamitsu v Hitachi, Okayama v Himeji, and Hisamitsu v Himeji. I'm golden. This is a great find, taking up the slack after the Pooshan youtuber went into retreat after last year's Apocalypse.

I forgot to mention that at the end of the 3rd set Okayama had all three setters on court: Miyashita, Ugajin, and new girl Natsuki Onodera. Onodera was the 'main' setter. They didn't get a chance to do any of that cool stuff where they set the ball to one another because Hitachi was killing it at the end of the match. But the opportunity was there

I don't know if Natsuki is related to Hitachi setter Yuka Onodera.

Quote from werka

Hey no livestream??? Whats happening? Last year we always have livestreams everywhere but now it’s so hard to find any

The Denso v Himeji is on youtube.

Himeji is gonna try Ivna at OP

It seems the vtv matches are the ones that will be streamed. Just the opposite of the way I need it

12:00 Denso v Himeji vtv

14:05 Okayama v Hisamitsu vtv

15:00 Hitachi v NEC vtv