World Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2008 - Japan

    Serbia vs Kazakhstan was too early for me to get up :whistle: I'm not too pleased that they lost a set, but since all the other sets were very decisive I guess it's OK, they didn't struggle too much.
    If they beat Dominican Republic tomorrow, I guess they should pretty much clinch a place at the Olympics, barring some big surprise. Go girls!

    Quote from Nastja

    3:1 for Japan (25:17 in the 4th set)
    Was a nice match, but im not satisfied with the Poles. Especially Kasia disappointed me. But ok, hope it will look different tomorrow.
    I liked Agnieszka Bednareks perfomance, good attacking and blocking, nice job :)



    Really surprising that Japan improves such substantially. Japan is playing with its best form and it can really threaten any strong teams in the world....Maybe Japan is the first in the tournament to enter the Olympics 2008...Poland seems stepping on the same place, although the players become more powerful, the coorperation among players is the biggest problem... They need to imporve in order to beat Serbia..

    Quote from sokolovafan

    They need to imporve in order to beat Serbia..

    In my opinion Poland needs to improve in order to beat Kazakhstan in tomorrow match. Today our play was terrible. Only Agnieszka Bednarek played very well and Mariola Zenik was OK too. We still don't know how to play against Japan... :down: Of course I believe that our girls will go to Beijing :)

    Quote from Joana

    Serbia vs Kazakhstan was too early for me to get up :whistle: I'm not too pleased that they lost a set, but since all the other sets were very decisive I guess it's OK, they didn't struggle too much.
    If they beat Dominican Republic tomorrow, I guess they should pretty much clinch a place at the Olympics, barring some big surprise. Go girls!


    Easy match for Serbia, they got sloppy in 3rd with too many unforced errors and lost the set. No problems otherwise though... I like Djerisilo as OH. Nikolic did not impress much today, she was dug too many times. Disappointed to see Veljkovic on the bench since she is one of my favorite Serbian players.


    Result of POL v JPN came as a surprise to me but Poland in recent tournaments have usually been slow starters. I don't think this loss will hurt them in the tournament.

    The Polish team has a lot of potential, but the Polish girls have too much ups and downs. Anyway, the situation was much worse before Bonitta was put in charge of the Polish National Team.


    How come they beat Italy in straight sets (WGP 07), almost beat Russia in the tie-breaker (EQT 08 ) and then they lose to Japan in 4 sets
    (WQT 08 )?


    The Japanese team had its merits and played before its fans, which made things much more difficult for the Poles, but the Polish girls need to learn how to take advantage of their height against teams like Japan and Korea.


    I hope Poland could recover their confidence quickly, cause they still have difficult matches. Besides Serbia, Korea and the Dominican Republic has always caused troubles to Poland whenever they meet.

    I follow Serbia's match...at least the score...I tried to follow the tv on the site...but they only showed till the 5x8 first set...then...just stoped...I don't know why... so I basicly follow just the score...


    it made me a little scared the beggining...cause of the reception....specially Djerisilo (is weird to see her passing..hehe)...but looks like she did a great job during the match!!!
    Brakocevic amazing...she is doing really well....very strong...and also Maja 9 points 5 blocks!!!I was really glad....


    This morning..I couldn't believe in Japan's result...for me Poland would won all matches of this tournament...but reading here...looks like Japan is on an amazing shape....and also playing home...in front of 10.000 people...definetly not easy for Poland, specially being first match...and won't be easy for any other team.....


    The other results were kind of normal...



    Today I wish Poland (I know they will) and Serbia beat the others...specially Serbia...won't be easy against Dominicans!!!!!!

    Quote from joanamss

    looks like Japan is on an amazing shape....and also playing home...in front of 10.000 people...


    Japan is not in amazing shape. They play like always: fantastic defence, involved in the game and they play almost all the tim at home, which is really annoying (Japanese fans are interested only in their own team) . This team won't have any problems to qualify, but during the OG, Japanese have no chance to win something important. All they can do is to win one set against team such Brasil or Russia. Poland just have some Japanese complex, sometimes we can beat them quite easily and another day our game against them is terrible - that day was yesterday.


    As Nastja said - Japan NT is our good friend :roll: Japan deserved the win and we didn't use our potential. Skowrońska was just pathetic, only Bednarek and Glinka played quite well.


    Today, against Kazakstan everything was much, much better - good play by Glinka, Bednarek, Podolec, Liktoras and Barańska. But we have to remember that Kazakstan is only average team. And Skowrońska - no comments :( :roll: No Dziękiewicz again... :thumbdown: If Bednarek plays that well, Lena won't play much in this tournament.


    We are still on a good way to go through and only some disaster could take the qualification away from us. But girls just can't play another "japanese" game here...

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D

    Edited 2 times, last by Konrad ().

    I don't know what is with Skowrońska.... She had a good season in Italy and now she plays very bad... ;( Rosner's performances are disappointing too. She substitutes Glinka for better reception but do it worse than Maggie :roll:


    Congratulations for Puerto Rico for good match against Japan :!:

    Came back from work now and im really relieved to see that finally poland won. Without losing a set even :lol:


    Judging from your comments, i assume that Skowronska was as bad as yesterday... I guess she is just overplayed. The long italian championship (and european cups) plus the nationalteam work were too much for her and her body. I also think that she is not motivated because she knows that this tournament/ this extra round was not needed. She is somewhere else with her head, probably on holidays, which she would have had if the team had qualified in Halle already.


    I really wonder about Dziekiewicz. Is it just because Bednarek is so good in shape, or is it just because Lena is not healthy?
    Of course Agnieszka is a great player and Im really happy that she is playing such nice matches lately, but still I think that Lena has a better field coverage and adds more team spirit. And maybe it would help Kasia too :lol:


    I hope to see her playing at least some sets in this tournament. I would love to see her against Serbia, just because she has experience with this trouble opponent.


    Has anybody watched Serbias match?
    From the result i see that Serbia had problems in 2 sets. Was it again just because of unforced errors and lack of concentration or was the Dominican Republic playing so well?



    Results of todays matches:
    Korea - Thailand 3:2 (25:20 28:26 14:25 21:25 18:16)
    Kazakhstan - Poland 0:3 (20:25 15:25 19:25)
    Puerto Rico - Japan 1:3 (20:25 18:25 25:17 24:26)


    Matches to be played tomorrow:
    Thailand vs. Puerto Rico
    Serbia vs. Korea
    Poland vs. Dom. Republic
    Japan vs. Kazakhstan

    Quote from Nastja


    I really wonder about Dziekiewicz. Is it just because Bednarek is so good in shape, or is it just because Lena is not healthy?


    Rather this first possibility. I haven't heard anything about Dziękiewicz's bad health condition.

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D

    Quote from Nastja

    Matches to be played tomorrow:
    Thailand vs. Puerto Rico
    Serbia vs. Korea
    Poland vs. Dom. Republic
    Japan vs. Kazakhstan


    On tuesday. Tomorrow we have the day off.

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D

    Dominicans made 42 mistakes!!!!!!!!Well...maybe the match could be harder for the Serbians....althought like you said Nastja...they had problems in first and second sets....I forgot the time...I thought the game would start 2..am here....but it was before....so I couldn't follow it....but I'm glad Serbia won...


    And also Poland....I hope Skowronska come back to the game...maybe she is just tired after the long Italian championship....if Poland be able to win without her now...even better...can she can have some rest...and focous her head into Olympic Games!!!hehe :win:


    A doubt....if Japan be the champion f this tournament...and then come Poland, Serbia and Dominica Republic...that means that the qualys are this four;;.;or in place of Dominican rep. will have an asian team???What I meant is...if Japan is the champion...it classify as best Asian tema or as the championship....oppening a spot tho the best Asian?

    Quote from joanamss

    A doubt....if Japan be the champion f this tournament...and then come Poland, Serbia and Dominica Republic...that means that the qualys are this four;;.;or in place of Dominican rep. will have an asian team???What I meant is...if Japan is the champion...it classify as best Asian tema or as the championship....oppening a spot tho the best Asian?


    Heh... As far as I know if we have: Japan, Poland, Serbia and Dominicana in first four places, Japan will qualiffy as the best Asian team. The rules say: the best three and the best Asian. I think, that another Asian team would have chances to qualify, only being in the first three. It is a little bit complicated in my opinion... :wacko:

    The most important 3:
    POLAND-SZCZECIN-VOLLEYBALL


    5th place - Prediction Game - World League 2011 :D

    Quote from Konrad


    Heh... As far as I know if we have: Japan, Poland, Serbia and Dominicana in first four places, Japan will qualiffy as the best Asian team. The rules say: the best three and the best Asian. I think, that another Asian team would have chances to qualify, only being in the first three. It is a little bit complicated in my opinion... :wacko:

    "The best three teams plus the best Asian team (even if any of the best three teams as Asians) will book their tickets to Beijing." - fivb.org

    I hope i'll see Japan team and their great defence at OG.And Kazakhstan(Yelena Pavlova)(If we can't go,they must go:D)

    It's just so annoying that yet another tournament is being held in Japan, I can't possibly watch the matches. X( Serbia didn't have it easy today, according to Nikolic it was a pretty tough battle, but the stats really tell the whole story, just way too many errors by the Dominicans. Anyway I feel they've done most of the job, Korea, Thailand and Puerto Rico should be easier opponents, but I'm greedy, I want victories against Poland and Japan too! :P


    Nice to see that Poland rebounded well from yesterday.

    yeah, luckily they won again. The match was alright (at least what i saw). Poland played great in set 3, unfortunatly not anymore in set 4. But thanks to some unforced errors by the dom. rep they were able to win. Bednarek served a nice ace to close the match.


    She is really great at this tournament and its definitely right to let her play. I just want to see Lena on court again, cos i just dont get the positive vibe anymore.
    Usually there was always a lot of smiling and if not a lot of pushing and motivating, but Agnieszka is just too young and has too much respect of superstars like Glinka to yell at them.
    If Bednarek had a bit more authority on court it would be fantastic! Unless that wont change i will continue to miss Lena... I still havent given up the hope to see her play at this tournament!


    Anyway, great job by Agnieszka! Wonderful to see that Poland has so good young talents as her and Podolec :thumbup:
    Then there are Baranska and Skowronska, both also young. And the setters of course. This team might become a great power, while some other teams will have to face problems when their veterans leave :)