China NT 2021

The thing that upsets me most about Chinese collapse is that we will remember two legendary names with a bitter taste: Lang Ping and Yan Ni. Both has given so much to Chinese NT and has been legendary names but retiring with such a bad tournament is really a pity. I consider Yan Ni's position similar to Eda's position in Turkish NT and everyone will be very sad after Eda retires but at least she is having a great tournament and people will remember her being such a great player. On the other hand, Yan Ni is far from her true self and I hope she can redeem herself in last two matches. I think the worst thing for an aging player is that she retires and no one misses her.

I don't like that Lang Ping is using Zhu's injury as an excuse, I think she is better than that! and she should own the failure. China is blessed to have 3 top level OHs in their roster whereas most of the other teams in this tournament don't even have two in their roster. So if Zhu is really injured, use other two as starter. How can she justify the terrible form of libero, setters and MBs and Gong. They all are not injured right? Clearly they, as a team, are not on their peak shape right now and this is 100% coach's responsibility.

I think China is still competitive with Zhang and Li OH duo. I remember in VNL, Zhang was carrying the team on her own and there were some games where she was scoring like Zhu would on her best day. Maybe she can do that again in Tokyo. She has Li next to her so the offensive load can be shared between them. The big problem is they only have 2 remaining matches and one of them is against Italy who is more than eager to take them down. Not to mention Gong is repeating her Rio performance and the MBs are struggling. Yan Ni's acclaimed blocking is non-existent and I still find it strange that despite Yuan's speed and height, she is still not a good blocker. Then again, this is the Olympics. Lots of surprises can happen and the other teams screwing up in their next games can sway the odds in China's favor. But the likelihood of that happening is very low.

Quote from serdar

The thing that upsets me most about Chines falldown is that we will two legendary name with a bitter taste: Lang Ping and Yan Ni. Both has given so much to Chinese NT and has been legendary names but retiring with such a bad tournament is really a pity. I consider Yan Ni's position to Eda's position in Turkish NT and everyone will be very sad after Eda retires but at least she is having a great tournament and people will remember being such a great player. On the other hand, Yan Ni is far from her true self and I hope she can redeem herself in last two matches. I think worse thing for an aging player is she retires and no one misses her.

I don't like that Lang Ping is using Zhu's injury as an excuse, I think she is better than that! and she should own the failure. China is blessed to have 3 top level OHs in their roster whereas most of the other teams in this tournament don't even have two in their roster. So if Zhu is really injured, use other two as starter. How can she justify the terrible form of libero, setters and MBs and Gong. They all are not injured right? Clearly they as a team are not on their peak shape right now and this is 100% coach's responsibility.

The injury excuse is just to deflect any media distraction. It's easy for Lang Ping to take the blame but what good will that do to the players? They have high respect for their coach, and it would only make them feel more bad for their coach to take all the blame in their current situation. Li Yingying said it was their coach that is keeping their heads up. That's why Lang Ping would not blame any players' poor performance to keep their morale up. It's easy for fans to blame her but that is understandable.

The one to blame should be the medical staff that couldn't fix Zhu's wrist problem all these years. They were just using therapy to prolong her playing time. But it finally caught up at the wrong time. Yan Ni's injuries also caught up at the wrong time. What can you do? Big changes are needed to keep players healthy. A lot of great Chinese athletes have short careers due to injuries from over training or playing through injuries. This problem hasn't been fixed at all so it will be the greatest challenge in my opinion. Whatever happens next, I just hope Zhu Ting fix her wrist problem and recovers 100%. Take as long as she needs.

Quote from zhutingfan

Yeah, losing to three teams we've practically never lost to in this cycle.

it is heartbreaking to see 🇨🇳🏐team falling apart. They are the only team that worked the hardest, devoted and invested a lot of time training and living far away from families. The sacrifices they had to endured to be in NT. Read GXY said she saw her family once this year.

Also what the heck is the point of bringing out of shape Liu Xiatong that you cant even use her to sub other player. Her spot is a waste.

Quote from zhutingfan

Like I said, cult of personality. Her decision making was outright bad and it's not wrong to criticize the coach.

the medical staff did not make the decision, they do what the coach and CVA tell them to do.

Criticism is fine but its not 100% coach's decision. Medical staff lied to Zhao Ruirui about her situation and shortened her career. Could be CVA or coach but we will never know. All we know medical staff did a poor job for Zhu. Just bad timing the injury affected her performance. China wouldn't be in this mess.

Quote from kittosuni

Also what the heck is the point of bringing out of shape Liu Xiatong that you cant even use her to sub other player. Her spot is a waste.

Just poor coaching selection. They thought starters were good enough but didn't expect Zhu's wrist injury.

The audacity seriouslyyy

Lang ping here says: "zhu is doing a great sacrifice, her wrist is seriously injured.
we will see if she can continue to play volleyball or not after this tournament"

Okaay wtff you know she is highly injured and there is a risk she might not be able to play ever again yet you still push her to play instead of putting her to rest

To me, despite the fact that zhu wants to play or not, they shouldnt let her period

They are being selfish

Or does lang ping want her and zhu ting to retire at the same time? Lol

Quote from zhutingfan

Zhu Ting needs to learn to say no (or in this case, "fuck off"). Zhang Changning needs too.

And Lang Ping needs to go (as much as I don't like saying this, but there's a bunch of questionable decisions since LYY joined the team and this is really just the culmination point).

lang ping seems to me, needs some rest as well (probably forever)

If there's one good thing in this whole disaster (and mind you, even I am feeling said with how such a legendary team and generation looks about to end its era), it is that finally blinkers are off when it comes to JLP and how the entire volleyball community, including most of this site, viewed her as a cuddly old grandma, a teddy-bear of a person. She is still a legendary coach and one of the best of all time, but she is very obviously a calculating person, and it would not surprise me in the least that she would try to make herself look best, even if that means potentially throwing a player or two under the bus.

Quote from Janko

If there's one good thing in this whole disaster (and mind you, even I am feeling said with how such a legendary team and generation looks about to end its era), it is that finally blinkers are off when it comes to JLP and how the entire volleyball community, including most of this site, viewed her as a cuddly old grandma, a teddy-bear of a person. She is still a legendary coach and one of the best of all time, but she is very obviously a calculating person, and it would not surprise me in the least that she would try to make herself look best, even if that means potentially throwing a player or two under the bus.

i feel like no matter what we say, i agree with fire_cai_bin that there are hidden things that we dont know about bcs theres no way that such a team which performed very good not even 2 months ago in VNL21 would go down this way.

This is a bad chapter in their life that im sure will get over soon and come back better in the Wch22

Hey do you have any links where we can match the game with ROC. I wasnt able to watch set 1 and 4

I'm still really sad about yesterday's game. I hope they will just rest all the injured players after this and still be back healthy. I also believe there is something more they are facing, other than injuries, affecting their game. They need a break, and go back big time in the World Championships.

I think apart from injuries, its all about mental.

China has been defeated by teams theyve never been defeated to in the olympic cycle.

big dent is the lost against turkey. The scoreline was overwhelming. From there, the team folded.

if they can sort this mental challenges, they can go toe to toe against Italy.

Quote from psganzon

big dent is the lost against turkey. The scoreline was overwhelming. From there, the team folded.

I would argue yesterday's loss against Russia was more painful, as China had chances to end the match and they had a complete breakdown in Set 4. I too am surprised just like everyone else that China ended up like this. They were regarded as the team to beat before Olympics as they were the team with the least faults. I think there is more to this story than Zhu's injury, but we can only speculate what really happened behind the scenes.

Quote from Janko

If there's one good thing in this whole disaster (and mind you, even I am feeling said with how such a legendary team and generation looks about to end its era), it is that finally blinkers are off when it comes to JLP and how the entire volleyball community, including most of this site, viewed her as a cuddly old grandma, a teddy-bear of a person. She is still a legendary coach and one of the best of all time, but she is very obviously a calculating person, and it would not surprise me in the least that she would try to make herself look best, even if that means potentially throwing a player or two under the bus.

I somehow agree to this. For someone to get to Lang Pings status and position, I think you have to be drunk with power. She had the option to retire many times in the past, but she is still China's HC. Whatever benefits she is afforded by CCP, wealth, prestige, etc surely get used to that for so many years. That is the only reason she has stayed this long. Love for the country is overrated IMO.