Japan Women's NT 2022

Quote from inigo

right now the most questionable players are Airi, Inoue and Yamagishi. Since Yamagishi is the only other libero with sufficient experience she will most likely stay. But without any changes in offense, it will be the same result or even worse come WCH. They could not get out of the week 3 rut. They lost to Belgium for the first time. If Manabe doesn't intend to utilize Miyashita he should just call Momii, she already works well with Mayu. Mayu can continue to be the other scorer if the rest are not ready to replace Inoue.

Manabe could revise Nakada's old formation with Mayu Koga Hayashi. Airi can be the slow and sluggish faux European player on the left

Quote from Phoenix

Manabe could revise Nakada's old formation with Mayu Koga Hayashi. Airi can be the slow and sluggish faux European player on the left

Byee I'm... so basically she's the trial Ishii. That may not work at all

have you seen the interview of JVA with the players? Inoue said their best libero is Yamagishi; the player you think is questionnable as well. Hmm.

Quote from Phoenix

Airi can be the slow and sluggish faux European player on the left

Go to sleeeeeeep go to sleep

I am rooting for Airi. No hate. Some shade I guess. But there's no point having her around if she's not able to play. She said or was it Takeshita or Manabe who said in the number article that she's able to adapt fast. What happened to that?

Airi could have a symbolic role. Like Iwasaka when she was the captain of Japan.

What about Nishikawa from JT? is she not a capable offensive player?

Inoue is worse than Osanai at this point. They might as well try Osanai again.

I'm glad Osanai was finally mentioned in the converstation. I lowkey like her for NT

They should've really tried another libero. Libero is the only position where they do not have an extra this VNL. It could've given Yamagishi and Kojima some challenge also. Not a fan of the other liberos in the wide roster, but I'm not a fan of Kojima also and she delivered, so maybe some can surprise.

The next time we will see them play is already for the Intrasquad matches / red and white?

Quote from staccato lightning

Inoue is worse than Osanai at this point. They might as well try Osanai again.

Too bad Osanai does not have a more stellar club stats than Inoue. I liked her back in world cup 2019.

Quote from volleyb

I'm glad Osanai was finally mentioned in the converstation. I lowkey like her for NT

They should've really tried another libero. Libero is the only position where they do not have an extra this VNL. It could've given Yamagishi and Kojima some challenge also. Not a fan of the other liberos in the wide roster, but I'm not a fan of Kojima also and she delivered, so maybe some can surprise.

The next time we will see them play is already for the Intrasquad matches / red and white?

Do they show the intersquad matches?

Quote from Irina

Do they show the intersquad matches?

Not free, but yes it is livestreamed. Here are the details for this year's matches: https://eplus.jp/sf/word/0000144058

Quote from inigo

What about Nishikawa from JT? is she not a capable offensive player?

She is but nowhere near as strong as Hayashi atm. I don't know why she didn't make the 2nd cut along with Kaneda etc. She's Koga's height and has a good jump.

Quote from sitenoise

I think Yoshino has more mental strength than Yuki. Yuki was the one who collapsed in the U20 glory match

When was that? do you mean literally or as in she did poorly?

Quote from Irina

Here's another take of the Italian coach on why Japan did awesome at the beginning then flopped at the finals;

2022 VNL WOMEN'S
GOOD-BYE ASIA: BIOLOGY AT ITS FINEST (Post 1430)

Let's go back to my prediction after week 1 of the Women's VNL:
"It's absolutely amazing the way Japan & Thailand dominate the League but, admiration aside, this is not gonna last. When the best will show up and height and most of all muscles will count above all, the usual suspects will be on top."

Brazil, Italy, Türkiye & the "surprise", Serbia, are in the semis: good-bye, Asia ... hey, what's up, Europe!

I had explained, that day, what the trick was: Japan & Thailand had the strategic intelligence of organizing their internal calendar according to the International one.

Japan ended its League (as always) in March, and Thailand did even better leaving plenty space to the preparation of the SEA Games, then dominated as usual.

More! Thailand used the SEA Games to prepare and "put minutes" in the legs of a new revamped National Team.

When VNL started, all the Teams that later reached the Finals were incomplete, as the European Leagues, National and CEV, were just finished and Top Players are still human and in need of rest.

Japan & Thailand were quick in moves and thought process, and that always wins against "tall and slow".
Shoots & combinations had the best on Teams that were still preparing, incomplete in Rosters, the VNL campaign.

Japan & Thailand were destined to stop their adventure when things got heated, at the final rush.

We had signs of what my prediction was all about with the Rising Sun's heroins: 8-0 after 2 weeks ... 8-4 at third.
Enough was enough!
Gasoline was running low but not only.

Japanese and Thais were accumulating muscular stress playing at double speed while the others were building strength & endurance.

More! There is a cultural issue involved that I had kept into consideration.

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I don't fully agree. I mean Japan was close against brazil in quarterfinals and Brazil now win against Serbia who beat USA - who still is the most dangerous team. And this is after a complete collapse I would say from Inoue, she was performing very good first weeks but then could do absolutely nothing last week. I know the blocking teams were stronger last week and QF but she should still have performed better than what we saw. Japan with two "koga"-level spikers can definately compete with the "muscle" teams in top 5 but I agree they have disadvantage because of the reasons he is talking about.

Quote from Tockin

I don't fully agree. I mean Japan was close against brazil in quarterfinals and Brazil now win against Serbia who beat USA - who still is the most dangerous team. And this is after a complete collapse I would say from Inoue, she was performing very good first weeks but then could do absolutely nothing last week. I know the blocking teams were stronger last week and QF but she should still have performed better than what we saw. Japan with two "koga"-level spikers can definately compete with the "muscle" teams in top 5 but I agree they have disadvantage because of the reasons he is talking about.

i'm still baffled by Inoue. Can't understand why.

I agree that they really could have put up a fight if Koga wasn't alone. But something was off the moment he changed the line up in week 3. All of them just went down. Koga wasn't her usual self (although still good). And the others were also failing.

In set 4 against Brazil, Manabe just gave up completely. I think Koga got really fatigued. There's no other reason why she was benched in such a crucial match like that.

I think all of them got burned out.

Quote from Tockin

Japan with two "koga"-level spikers can definately compete with the "muscle" teams in top 5 but I agree they have disadvantage because of the reasons he is talking about.

one thing the coach didn't mention on that post (he talked about it in his class) is that Japan spend less time at the gym than the other national teams. They spend less time doing weights etc.