2020 Olympics - Tokyo, Japan

    Conte's shoelaces are always getting undone lol

    My heart is pounding

    Italy's middles are doing so well in this 5th set!

    Quote from jt1267

    Michieletto has been getting all the praise,

    but Gianluca Galassi is having a spectacular tournament too as a 1st year NT-er

    I agree. If there's one thing Galassi has to work on, it's his service, but he's been playing really well.

    I don't think my heart can take this ||

    Colaci :gone:

    Quote from sambokojin

    Do you think they will be able to qualify for Paris? Iran will surely want to have revenge on them. Will Marouf still be playing by then?


    Quote from Realista

    Qualification process to OG will be changed drastically, I don't know if it was confirmed already officially, but according to rumors there won't be continental qualification tournaments and the best team from every continent will advance to Olympics, so being the best Asian team in FIVB ranking will be decisive here.


    For now Japan is a spot ahead of Iran, but its a long way to go.

    the new system, which was what they used in 2019 and early 2020 gives the top 24 ranked teams a chance to qualify through the world qualifiers. Japan should be in the top 12 if they do well in VNL, continental and World Championships. That will put them as one of the top two in their pool before play starts, and an expectation of a chance in the final match, if they win the first two matches. In Asia, it is really them and Iran as the favorites to be the Asian team. China has very few players overseas, while Iran has a couple overseas.


    I think Japan had a good tournament, they were close against Poland, Italy and Brazil, which is about as good as you can ask for. Looking at the stats, too much offense flows to Nishida, Ishikawa and Takahashi. The middles need to be more involved, but to me Yamauchi just looks like a traffic cone with everything going around him in blocking. So tall but compared to Lucas, just nowhere near successful. I would have preferred Kentaro Takahashi in the middle as his pace and blocking ability as just so far ahead of Yamauchi. Onodera is better in the middle as he is one of the best blockers in the V.League. Could you a spell overseas if a team would take him, if he was willing to leave.

    Takahashi did ok, but he will improve as he is so young. Nishida and Ishikawa did well, Yuki throwing in the 2nd ball set/spike fake threw Brazil for loops to get Japan the lead in the second set. Surprising teams with it is critical but damn is it effective. Yamamoto in defense was good as the libero. Takanashi and Otsuka barely had any game action and could have easily been replaced with Fukuzawa and Yanagida for better depth and experience.

    Lima is saving Argentina this 5th set :white: