Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2023-2024

    Quote from bolt

    Toyota is not gonna win against NEC and neither was Saga anyway. More importantly they don't heavily rely on Dani. NEC's rotation is completely different and they have better subs to outgun Ageo, Saga and Denso. Anything can happen but if JT doesn't follow through with championships well that's definitely the fault of the coach. They have a full arsenal.


    Saga is not fortified. They wasted their money on Hanai and the Thai player I forgot her name but absolutely useless and they made the Japanese American setter their translator way to fuck up their roster.

    These are facts


    The 2 strongest teams of the season both have their NT aces in check


    JT not only has Drews but they have Santiago too. Those 2 alone are deadly in combination. On top of having Hayashi as their Shinnabe and 3 working liberos who are all in good form. Then Wada and Ameze.


    NEC has Dani not the strongest but reliable plus Ajcharaporn. Having Ajcharaporn is already a win for any team. A breeze for Koga. They have 2 working liberos 3 in total unfortunately 2 are mediocre but at least Kojima isn't burnt out. Their young setter Nakagawa handles everything smoothly. Robotic but if it works, it works. Last but not the least Yamada no problems on her end


    Saga has the most problematic roster and their lineup has been all over the place. Adams is a success but Kamlangmak did nothing for this team. Dilemma with Fukazawa not working so back to Nakajima and she did okay. While everyone was waiting for Araki to get better Otake was doing well but they gave way to Hamamatsu instead why?! They have 3 setters 2 are rusty. Only 1 working libero. Nagaoka handled their biggest load every time they were getting wrecked. Nakagawa and Yoshitake both failed miserably as subs.

    Saga should've gotten a Thai libero. Their MBs except Ohtake are all NT hopefuls it should've been obvious that Chitaporn isn't getting that spot over them. The one that needed the most help is Nishimura. Secondly why get that American setter who wasn't any better than Mandai. If they already had a so-so sub setter the logical step is to get a better setter than what they already had but both are equally bad unbelievable.


    Still this is such a drastic loss for Saga. First they got bumped off by Hitachi and then Toyota. They aren't the most solid team we agree on that but just how unstable are they. They had the lead it was supposed to end there.


    They need to stop with those uglyass tiktok videos that has nothing to do with their current team. Especially Nakagawa she ain't shit. If she wants to be a local celebrity so bad retire from this industry immediately and go set up a youtube studio.

    Even if Saga ends up winning 5th place in the end they're still losers. No one cares about 5th placers. Once you're out of the top 3 you're done for the season. Fukazawa is a liability. Araki has accumulated more injuries than improvements. Nakagawa will never leave that team her highchool is Hisamitsu's partner. If they kept Arisa Inoue and had a defensive OPP to sub for Nagaoka things might've looked better for them. Losing to Toyota in the finals is a new low for them.

    Honestly you guys are taking this way too hard. I wouldn't stress out about it. We still have the Olympics for that or VNL should they you know tank that badly


    Come March people are gonna forget most of this. Not to invalidate the winners it's important so focus on them. It doesn't have to be about Saga's failures all the time. I feel like you guys loooove highlighting that more than any other team's achievements lol

    Quote from Phoenix

    Honestly you guys are taking this way too hard. I wouldn't stress out about it. We still have the Olympics for that or VNL should they you know tank that badly


    Come March people are gonna forget most of this. Not to invalidate the winners it's important so focus on them. It doesn't have to be about Saga's failures all the time. I feel like you guys loooove highlighting that more than any other team's achievements lol

    a powerhouse getting destroyed? what else is more important to talk about? :lol:

    Toray no longer has high stakes players in it not even Yoshino ex-Ageo. I'm not really invested in Seki. I had high hopes for Yoshino Nishikawa but she seems to have gotten heavier and slower this season. I don't think she's the volleyball is fun type of player but is more like I'll do this for a couple years and retire.

    Quote from bolt

    Toray no longer has high stakes players in it not even Yoshino ex-Ageo. I'm not really invested in Seki. I had high hopes for Yoshino Nishikawa but she seems to have gotten heavier and slower this season. I don't think she's the volleyball is fun type of player but is more like I'll do this for a couple years and retire.

    yuri yoshino? was she ever considered high stakes? she got into the nt twice i think but then she got injured so uchiseto replaced her. the only time she was able to play was during the red and white pandemic match. i remember sitenoise not liking her one bit haha

    Quote from Playmaker

    yuri yoshino? was she ever considered high stakes? she got into the nt twice i think but then she got injured so uchiseto replaced her. the only time she was able to play was during the red and white pandemic match. i remember sitenoise not liking her one bit haha

    High stakes might not be the most appropriate term for her but an NTer will always be an NTer and right now other than Seki she's the only other one that made it to the NT to some extent in the recent years leading to Tokyo that's what I meant about high stakes.

    These Hisamitsu and Toray mentions made me want to look at how the Fukazawa twins performed this season.


    Tsugumi Fukazawa (Toray, OH)

    194 points, 37.7% attacking, 0.20 blocking, 49.1% receiving (played 60 sets)


    Megumi Fukazawa (Hisamitsu, OH)

    71 points, 31.3% attacking, 0.07 blocking, 51.9% receiving (played 46 sets)


    I don't usually watch Toray but Tsugumi probably receives really bad considering she is even worse than Megumi :lol: Although, she played MB in high school so just recently converted. She is Toray's 2nd top scorer next to Nwakalor, and pretty decent attacking numbers vs other local OHs. It's weird to think that when Seki leaves next season, Toray will be Tsugumi's team. I mean, weird as she's new and nobody will be an NT rep or what in there (other than former NT Yuri Yoshino as mentioned above)

    Isn't this Deja Vu from the Ono twins? does anyone still remember them? I'm not sure which of them made it far in the NT when Manabe introduced the hybrid system. One of them was extremely serious and had sort of an unlikable heavy aura (Kaho Toray) and the other was just so happy go lucky it's impossible to hate her (Kana NEC) I have the exact same feelings about Megumi and this weaker Toray twin. Tsugumi oddly has a very different vibe to Megumi but still likable.

    Megumi is supposed to be the top candidate to be Saga's next gen ace. She does have potential. I'm not too sure myself since she often gets yanked but when she does well she really nails it like during the last match at the Empress Cup against Hitachi when she cried her heart out however when she can't score Sakai yanks her and we never see her again. I think it's messing with her head and her confidence. She's about as likable as Arisa Inoue to me but that's a personal issue. I'm sure she's a nice kid