Posts by brahmin

http://www.aichi-va.gr.jp/association/branch/20186tubu/

This is where I found the data for the tournament. Men's and high school teams also played as well.

There are plenty of regional championships in Japan, let alone prefectural things. PFU, Kurobe, Queenseis, JR Gifu, Breath Hamamatsu and Denso all played over three days. Only best-of-three sets. Queenseis won over Kurobe in the finals, Kurobe beat Denso in one semifinal, while Queenseis beat PFU in the other.

Philippines players will probably not cost a lot on the transfer. It is a big step up in play even at the V2 level, which would be my expectation. V1 teams are taking known commodities from top level countries, USA, Serbia and Cuba.

sitenoise wrote:

What team is that? Is it the one that Takeshita's team tried to buy? This is sad news for me because I love Arisa Sato. I loved watching all the Hitachi games last season because of Arisa even though they lost almost all the time.

Isn't it possible that it might be two years before this team makes its way into V1? Don't new teams have to petition their way into Level Three and then win their way into the top Division?

Sadder even more is that if Arisa is playing in some funky lower division team she won't ever make her way back to the NT where she belongs. I'm really mad at the whole world right now

The team in Sendai is a completely new team. Belle Fille died before the 2017-2018 season and cannot come back. The new team would have to reach S1 license and let alone perform well enough to be promoted from V2.

sitenoise wrote:

(All the B-Team excuse makers making lists should take note!) (Not to mention Nagaoka)

Thanks for the links and news! I agree with you about Araki, and realize it's unfair of me to always qualify her as the best Middle Blocker. She's a great floor leader too. Seeing her in that Friendly game against USA, she installs a sense of confidence in the game.

My knee-jerk reaction to Nakada saying Akane Yamagishi has improved is: WTF OMG. But then again I thought Kurogo's ship sank in her first few appearances at the VNL.

I watched Horikawa all club season and she is improving but she's a bit like Nabeya in that she doesn't seem like she has a whole game in her--just a couple sets at most.

I often wonder why Yuki (as far as I can tell) never became a fan favorite, why she was never picked to succeed Saori. She seems like a technically perfect volleyball player. And she plays great defense. Great Defense, I say. She's a beautiful woman, and seems smart--confident and articulate (as far as I can tell) in post match interviews. I guess it comes down to what I often say about Yuki and Risa: they're great but they aren't leaders, they don't stand out. They are quiet helpers. Japan needs them but they also need something/someone else who is better than them.

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Part of the love for Kurogo is that she won the high school championship. Everyone gets accustomed to watching them as kids and then expect them to continue as adults. Kurogo is still incredibly young. Yuki kind of just showed up and then she's a permanent fixture on the team. Japan needs some solid all around players (Yuki and Risa) to keep the ball in play and get some kills. They are not going to dominate a team with height (Russia, USA, Brazil, Serbia). Japan's blocking numbers are always horrible, so they have to depend on digging and serving to keep them in matches. Any departure from that script would be near impossible with such a short team.

Araki has so much experience with the national team and is trying to pass that onto the younger players. Araki will go through 2020 before retiring. Horikawa is not Nagaoka, but I would have had Sakoda in Rio as my opposite starter, but that's my opinion.

Right now, I am wondering if they can make the third round of the world championships. Probably will go 4-1 in the First Round (losing to Netherlands). Would face Serbia and Brazil in 2nd Round. If they win one of those matches, they have a chance, but they cannot waste points or sets in the first round. A win over the Netherlands would change their chances for the third round.

sitenoise wrote:

I wish I could read the Japanese Twitter World!

Let's open that can of worms. I imagine Japanese volleyball fans are a little restless as to why the NT isn't improving, and criticism is going to focus on the coach. As @brahmin mentions, Hisamitsu was Nakada's team not NEC, and it comes down to Yuki and Risa, and soon to be Nagaoka. I don't think Nakada overplays Iwasaka, but others think any time on the court for her is too much.

Yuki and Risa are the best players Japan has but they are not going to get any better or get any worse, so I do wish Nakada would give more opportunity to younger players leading up to these "important" tournaments (WCh & OG).

Bottom line, I have no idea how these young women prove themselves worthy in the practice sessions I can't see. Nakada threw Ai Kurogo in the pool and to my surprise she started swimming.

@MyNameIst.... Is the Twitter world just grumbling about the Hisamitsu players or are they naming other players they'd like to see get playing time (or even called up to the NT)? I would love to know who Japanese Japan fans are fond of.

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My guess is that they want more Koga and Kurogo. The best player that Japan has right now is Araki and she got the VNL off. Considering that Hisamitsu only lost one match all year, with essentially an entire Japanese roster, it is hard for me to understand why the Japanese say she plays too many Springs players. In an interview yesterday (8/6 in Japan) with Volleyball Magazine posted by Yahoo. Nakada says she hates to lose, anywhere. She said that Kurogo has improved during the VNL. She mentioned that outside of Kurogo that Horikawa and Akane Yamagishi (Ageo) had also improved.

Risa is a pass first type of player, without her passing, Japan is much worse off. Yuki is going to be a focus on offense and she more help from the middle. Iwasaka is more of a blocker than spiker. Araki is dominant for Japan at spiking and blocking, but she does not get the ball enough.

TBS has started to produce mini movies on the entire team, all in Japanese.

Risa Shinnabe

In the video, Shinnabe's poor performance in 2014 almost caused her to retire. She said without Nakada as her coach she might not have continued playing.

Hisamitsu is the best team in the league. She has coached them previously. Does she know those players, yes. However, Nakata has chosen other players. If you don't want the best team to send their players, then Japan will have a problem.

Japanese teams still retain the players rights, so often these are loans for 1-2 years. KYK at first was a loan, but she really wanted to stay and got her freedom.

Ebata’s was before 2014 World Championships if I remember right. Erika Araki, Yuka Sanyo (libero) went previously. It is a big cultural shift as well with the different languages for Japanese players.

In my article there are links to the English page selling the tickets with screenshots as well.

Tickets just went on sale for the Championship today. They can be purchased from overseas. Tickets for the foreigners have gone quickly for the semifinals and finals.

https://volleymob.com/tickets-…ship-in-japan-go-on-sale/

Japan's league is a decent league. However, just like in soccer, if you want to improve, you need to play overseas in the best leagues. Essentially teams in Italy and Turkey appear to be all-star teams. When you play them every week, you are bound to improve in some way. Now, if you wanted Saori Kimura to be the leader of your team, I would probably say that is not a good move (not meaning the Japanese national team, just if she was on a club team in Europe).

After watching a video on Ebata's time with Cannes in France, she learned that she needed to call for the ball. In Japan, it usually doesn't happen that way.

Kakeru wrote:

Any final line up for the Japanese NT line up for the World Championships?

It will be after the Asian Games. There is still two months before they play the opening match.

The Japanese Volleyball Association has just released ticket prices for the World Championship.

Article

came wrote:

Last year, they tried to participate in V2 by buying a team that became difficult for management, but they could not participate because they were opposed by other teams.
They will come to V2 without any criticism from anyone this year

The reason they were not let were for the following reason. Sendai Bellefille had told the VLeague that they were ceasing operations. Because of that players were expected to be released from Sendai’s roster.
Victorina came in very late and said, we want to purchase Sendai’s position in V2. The league said yes, but with some conditions and this is missed by many. Victorina had to take on at least half of Sendai’s players. As many were now out of contract or released by Sendai, Victorina had like 2 or 3 weeks to get 9 or 10 players signed. Many said no, and Victorina finished with two signed. Hence the league responded with a no, you will not be joining. Additionally the team had not applied to join V3, so they were on the sidelines.

No with the new version of the league, there are no teams in V3 (new teams are given that license to start). As the only new member they are in V2.

fufighter wrote:

Found the site selling ticket in UK and anotherone. Before i try to seach using wch term in google and ut didnt come up. Now i type full name and found it.

The final ticket, for the best seat, lower part, has now gone up to more than 1,500 usd. Crazy!!!!

For the best matches, the prices always go up. When the Lakers were good in the NBA, foreign classmates in my grad school in Portland would see that they were coming into town and say “I want to go.” My response immediately was you’ll have to pay a lot of money. Because you did not buy tickets as soon as they went on sale.

For the big events, just get a seat. You may not like it, but with prices increasing as the the matches get important, just being in the building is a positive. If you want good seats, see the early rounds which will be cheaper and usually less crowded (if not for the home team). Got to see World League in my hometown in 2007, which was a surprise that it came to my hometown for two nights. I bought the best seats possible and sat court side. It cost about $45 a night, but was great.

FIVB is trying to put the Finals in bigger arenas, but in Italy even the big venues will be full for the final.

fufighter wrote:

HI,

I know this question has been asked before.

Anybody have news update about where or when are they gonna sell the ticket for Semi and Final in Turin? Im leaving outside Europe and intend to fly there just for this. I have to book flight (at least 2 flights since i have to connect from rome - turin) and hotel. And it would be disater to book a flight then cant find the ticket anywhere untill last moment.

I do some google and found some guy post in his instragram since Feb 2018 that he got ticket for semi and final. That 's why im very concern.

I think few month ago, i see they open for semi final for sale, one seat left. And i keep looking at the seat map and somehow the seat is gone. Since then it's not open anymore for sale.

Mail to ask this at ticket one, they cant give me answer when it will be open or it's sold out yet. They just reply the same that i have to check regulary.

Anyone here already get those tickets maybe?

PS. KK15 - I really wanna ask you lot of question since you are local. But that damn PM system is not working

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According to this article in March, there were only 600-700 tickets for the semifinals and finals remaining at that time. I am betting that the matches are sold out. There are some tickets on the secondary market, but the federation/ticketone are not wanting people to purchase on the secondary market.

It does look like final group tickets are available. If the Italian do not make the third round, some tickets for the semifinals might become available.

Welcome to the forum.

They are not playing the Asian Championships this year. The Asian Games is what they are playing in.

sitenoise wrote:

I see that Akane Ukishima, #19 on Hisamitsu has requested a transfer. I saw her play a few games during one of those one-off tournaments this spring. She's a lefty OPP, 22 years old, only 172cm but she impressed me. I mentioned earlier I'd like to see her move to a team where she'd get playing time, as she is unlikely to crack the Hisamitsu lineup. Only downside is that playing for Hisamitsu is better chance of making NT. Good luck to her.

Would she ever get playing time with Hisamitsu's roster?

SHAME wrote:

Teams will still have company names, but probably city names will be included (documentation says local names, but the league needs sponsors and the teams are around because of companies). Nothing official yet, probably wait for the break between the VNL and World Championships.