2022 Women's Volleyball Nations League

    Quote from Tagantsev

    I think four games a week is too much. If you're going to play four matches, you should have three set matches. Only the playoffs should be five-set matches.

    In some countries, players get very little compensation and are at risk of injury. We rely on their patriotism to criticize and be emotionally drained.

    I've said the same thing over and over again, but the American audience is terrible. The FIVB president should also hand out leaflets.

    too many teams, not enough time to recover or take a vacation for many players

    Quote from avid

    her reception is fine.


    the three I mentioned above are all a level, if not two worse

    I don't think so, her reception was quite subpar while she was playing in Turkey. sitenoise was SWP's reception 'fine' in Japan?

    Quote from suminj

    woah I just noticed that Japan won 3-0 against USA :what:

    Can someone who watched the full match give a breakdown of what happened there ???

    Classic Japanese game where they recycled every ball as possible. We have to note, this is the same USA lineup that defeated Brazil 3-0 convincingly — even though they aren't team A, they still are high caliber. Just Japan outplayed them.

    That is why I don't understand why Dixon and Kingdon were tried. I don't see them being part of the team, level and performance wise. They could have given chances to newbies. As I have said before, playing against Japan is not easy at all. Experiencing a Japanese style game, albeit a loss, would be helpful for their development.

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    Table after 1 week of female VNL.

    Serbia, Japan and Thailand are a positive surprise :whistle:

    A lot of bands are without their biggest stars, but it's fun to watch :rose:

    Quote from Tagantsev

    I think four games a week is too much. If you're going to play four matches, you should have three set matches. Only the playoffs should be five-set matches.

    In some countries, players get very little compensation and are at risk of injury. We rely on their patriotism to criticize and be emotionally drained.

    I've said the same thing over and over again, but the American audience is terrible. The FIVB president should also hand out leaflets.

    four games a week is not much. Teams play one or two games a week as pros. National team matches have always had 3 games in a row max. The new system of 4 games in 6 day is not bad, some will still get 3 games in 3 days.

    FIVB is still giving players prize money for each match played. Not saying it is great, but players can choose to play for national team or not. Don’t forget getting on the team and playing well can increase their attractiveness to clubs, increasing their pay.

    Three set matches would really improve the tv time, but kill the tension.

    USAV is rightfully getting shamed on this board. Best crowded with USA in the match was against Brazil was 1,545 on Saturday night. They got 1,002 on Friday for USA-Canada. The Japan match was 702.
    you could have put this in Anaheim-Irvine-Long Beach and got that combined total one night.

    Quote from suminj

    Question to anyone who knows, this Japan team - especially the setter, looks so much better than the young team they sent to Olympics last year

    Why didn't they pick these players instead? Different coach?

    Manabe returned.


    I don't think any of those players stood a chance whilst girls like Kurogo, Miya Sato, Ishii, Nagaoka etc were still active. Manabe completely demolished Nakada's foundations and didn't even force Mayu out there.

    Quote from suminj

    Question to anyone who knows, this Japan team - especially the setter, looks so much better than the young team they sent to Olympics last year

    Why didn't they pick these players instead? Different coach?

    How can you tell that they're better? If they battled last VNL's Brazil and USA would they have won? I highly doubt it.


    Japan did well for themselves last VNL too. They fell apart by the Olympics because Kurogo had a mental breakdown trying to be Nagaoka and Koga got injured so they were left with Ishii, Ishikawa and Momii to figure things out.

    Quote from Umu11

    That is why I don't understand why Dixon and Kingdon were tried. I don't see them being part of the team, level and performance wise. They could have given chances to newbies. As I have said before, playing against Japan is not easy at all. Experiencing a Japanese style game, albeit a loss, would be helpful for their development.

    my conspiracy theory is Karch is trying to help Dixon get a contract so she got matches to help that.


    other than that,,. I have no idea

    Quote from SR71

    How can you tell that they're better? If they battled last VNL's Brazil and USA would they have won? I highly doubt it.


    Japan did well for themselves last VNL too. They fell apart by the Olympics because Kurogo had a mental breakdown trying to be Nagaoka and Koga got injured so they were left with Ishii, Ishikawa and Momii to figure things out.

    This team's defence is better thus far I feel (comparing VNL to VNL performance). I like the setting much more too

    Anyway it's just from a viewers point of view, thus far they look like a better team

    Quote from suminj

    This team's defence is better thus far I feel (comparing VNL to VNL performance). I like the setting much more too

    Anyway it's just from a viewers point of view, thus far they look like a better team

    Imo, the few reasons why this team may seem better or why the current players weren't chosen in the past are:

    1) New coach - the coach that led Japan to 2012 London bronze, Manabe, has returned as HC. He has a different vision from the previous coach, Nakada


    2) New player pool - a lot of the veteran NT players during the last few years (i.e. Shinnabe, Iwasaka, Nagaoka, Araki, Kobata, Sato, Tominaga, Tashiro, Nabeya, and etc) either retired or were not perceived to fit Manabe's style of play, hence a new pool of NT players was created, with many of them never having played together before. Different skill sets, different styles, different club backgrounds.


    3) New systems and combinations - Maybe this team seems better because with new systems and combinations, their tactics and style of play differ from the previous NT roster. Their tactics seem to be working well for this Week 1 of the VNL, but it remains to be seen whether this is a sign of their strength or a little luck due to their opponents' weakness.


    4) As a viewer myself who's still a beginner in volleyball tactics and strategy, I find it difficult to compare this year's VNL team with the 2021 VNL team. Last year's VNL team wasn't perfect, but they were strong in many aspects (i.e. MBs were very effective with blocks at the front, sets by Momii (or Seki and Tashiro) were fast and high, they were agile and cohesive as a team), the same way that this year's VNL has their charms. The details are all very debatable, but it's easy to take their perfect run this week as a premature sign that this team is "better" than last year's or the Olympics'.


    5) I guess in the end, you'll never know whether or not this team would've done better at the Olympics or if they would've performed better as a team last year. Different players react differently to different circumstances, i.e. now they may seem calm, but they may lose their nerve at the Olympics. Additionally, they may not have been as good last year as they are now, as each player's development differs according to their respective clubs' progress as well.

    Ultimately, it's hard to pinpoint a specific factor to explain why this team is doing good or seem to be better than the previous: it's the work of both internal and external forces.


    Personally, given Japan's current overall player pool with many good players retiring or not being called to the NT, I was surprised by some of the roster choices, but am happy to see that the coaching team may have worked out something concrete after all, especially after the whole criticism fiasco that happened after the Olympics.

    Simplest answer for Japan. The team got old. If it was 2020, they probably would have been better, but Shinnabe retiring did not help. Let alone Japan has always had problems at middle. I love Erika Araki, but it just wasn't coming out of her body. Yamada was not ready (she's getting there, but still young).


    Ishii in 2018 was decent, but on the national team, Ishikawa was going to replace her, but still with Koga's injury in the games, she was the backup. That was not a recipe that was going to replace like for like. Koga is much better.


    Plus with Nakata's five years of running the team, it just was not changing. 2017 was a surprise, 2018 a leveling (while the rest of world improved greatly), 2019 was about the same as 2018. In my mind if they made the quarterfinals, that would be as far as they would go. Koga's injury and the loss to South Korea in group play made it hypercritical to win the DR game. It didn't happen.


    Manabe's basically, play the kids, but keep a couple of the veterans. Also focus on serving, which worked really well on Sunday against USA.

    Yeahh that's the simplest answer. Their "best players" got old and the younger ones hadn't or haven't reached their heights yet. Maybe that's also another problem of the previous coaching team (correct me if I'm wrong): they never really injected the NT with much new blood. Sure, they did take in new ones, but they were mostly on the bench and their key players revolved around the same players without giving opportunity to the others to gain more international experience. Whatever potential the inexperienced players had, they didn't really focus on developing it or having them learn from their seniors.

    Quote from avid

    that was well over a year ago and the reception line in Nilufer sucked.


    She's been USA's best passer during this VNL and was a top passer during her time in the last VNL.

    How come reception line sucked in Nilüfer? If it sucked, it was because of SWP🤦 their libero Buse Kayacan is one of the best receiver Turkish liberos (she just get transferred to THY) and other 3 outsides in Nilüfer's roster were defensive outsides who covered SWP.:whistle:


    Her passing was not any better than Kingdon and other passers are Frantti and Bajema, so there is not much competition at that compartment for SWP😂


    I like SWP too but let's not pretend like she is an all-around OH. She is another offensive OH with subpar passing

    Quote from serdar

    How come reception line sucked in Nilüfer? If it sucked, it was because of SWP🤦 their libero Buse Kayacan is one of the best receiver Turkish liberos (she just get transferred to THY) and other 3 outsides in Nilüfer's roster were defensive outsides who covered SWP.:whistle:


    Her passing was not any better than Kingdon and other passers are Frantti and Bajema, so there is not much competition at that compartment for SWP😂


    I like SWP too but let's not pretend like she is an all-around OH. She is another offensive OH with subpar passing

    None of Fulden/Merve/whoever were great receivers that could help cover her. (they all passed the exact same this season without SWP)


    Her passing was over 10% better than Kingdon.


    Top passers in turkey this past season (playing in the VNL this week) were Simge, Hande, Meliha, Kingdon, and Orthmann


    Guess who passed better than all of them this week (despite being with the aforementioned "Frantti and Bajema")


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    not the receipts but also SWP didn’t exactly play against the toughest competition. She isn’t a better passer than Hande Simge or Meliha lol