Posts by Nghiphong

Ebata's absence is not a real problem for me tbh. Back in OGQ 2012, Nana Iwasaka and Kanako Horai were presented instead of Ai Otomo and Kaori Inoue. Yet the latter made it into London. So Ebata will defly go to Rio, and probably Uchisato as well tho we don't like her at all lol. About Risa, i read somewhere that she refuses to participate in national team for the time being so it's very unlikely for us to see her again in Rio.

The MB line up for Japan this year seems to be fixed already with Araki, Yamaguchi and Shimmamura.

Tashiro as the second setter is still a questionable choice tho.

Thanks God, finally the Great Araki is back on duty and no more Zayasu for the time being :D.
Risa's absence has always been remaining a mystery, since 2015.
Okumura is a rising star, she even managed to out-show Araki in recent matches, but i highly doubt she would ever take the place of Otake and Yamaguchi in starting team.
I actually expected Nanami Inoue who has had an amazing season with Hitachi Rivale to be called instead of Shimamura or Kawashima, but well, Manabe proved me wrong . Iwasaka is a huge mess comparing with Nanami Inoue .
Questionable choices aka Uchiseto and Nabeya, again and again .

Quote from theloneracer

What a excellent blocking performance from Iwasaka, 9 blocks . I really hope she would return to play for the NT again this year. Japan WNT could really use with the extra height in front of the net.

Her skill only works in domestic league, i guess. Iwasaka couldnt even properly block those 1,7m wing spikers from Thailand and Taiwan in the last Asia club championship. After watching her mediocre performance at that tournament, i literally lost all the hope on her appearance in Brazil next summer. She is much slower in attack than other national team MBs as well so i do not expect to see her again in national team.

The two MBs of JT played really well in the last two matches but they are, like, at the same height of Yamaguchi. Cant find any decent and tall MB at domestic league at the moment except Araki!! Truly hope she can join in national team this summer .

Quote from nnnneil0929

Anyone knows where can I watch the matches? whether it's live or replay.. Thanks in advance guys!
Yay Hisamitsu!!! Shinnabe♥

Check this and this

Yanagita has finally been back to duty, good news for NEC!!

Quote from Ryu Takamiya

NEC Red Rockets 2-3 Ageo Medics (25-16, 25-27, 25-23, 20-25, 7-15)

Quote from Ryu Takamiya

NEC: Haruyo Shimamura 21 (4 blocks, 1 ace), Risa Shiragaki 18 (2 aces), Sarina Koga 15 (1 block)
Ageo: Kelly Murphy 36(1 block), Yuki Araki 15 (1 block), Erika Araki 12 (2 blocks, 3 aces)

Quote from Ryu Takamiya

Kelly 35/78 (14/33 from back) is really good. Other players should help her more on attack.
Akari Ohmi (OH/NEC) twisted her ankle during 1st set and Ayana Oyama replaced her.
Without Ohmi, NEC's recepiton is really nightmare. Koga's reception isn't good recently.

Just whilst i was wondering why Oumi only played the first set with 100% on attacking (2/2). Hope she's gonna recover soon. Have you heard any update about Yanagita? I havent seen her for ages. Is she still under treatment for her injury???

Quote from ravens#7

Toray Arrows lost every an important piece of the puzzle lately: Kimura in 2012, Araki in 2013, Hamaguchi in 2014, Nakamichi in 2015. Obviously they need time to find their new soul as a team. Saori is back, they found a new dominant MB to replace Araki, they have to fix the setter and libero position now.

Nakamichi is an assistance coach for Toray from this season, rite? Anyway, I do think they should somehow give their bench players more chances to be on court. They've got some really good and promising youngsters like Horikawa (WS), Shirai (the best setter in the recent U20-WCH), Sugihara Wakaba (WS) and Yuki Mori (MB) but those are rarely seen on any Toray's match.

Quote from Dr Organoborane

I think whole of Japanese NT has issue with finding a consistent setter as all of them have up/downs.

Exactly, we should blame Takeshita for that . She was too good to be true and managed to be on top form for so freaking long, thus all the coaches refused to replace her with anyone else even though there were tons of other great setters in her era . IMO, JVA's target is getting a gold medal in Tokyo 2020, thats why they let Miyashita, Koga, Miyabe, Inoue etc to play for national team as soon as they could to gain experience. So up until Miyashita becomes master in her setting, we probably gotta endure her inconsistency for another while.

Quote from brahmin

[quote='brahmin','index.php?page=Thread&postID=304012#post304012']Araki in the middle will relieve some of the pressure on the outside hitters, plus the blocking will help as well.

Watch the marvelous and flawless volleyball she has played in recent matches (10 blocks at last Sunday match, i was like awww seriously !!!!), i truly deeply do look forward to her participation at OG 2016 with Japan. Araki, like Brahmin previously mentioned, also has the great leader kind of aura that Saori does not process at all, unfortunately. I read somewhere before, Saori had already wanted to retire from national team after OG 2012 and enjoy her year at Turkey to the fullest. Yet, Manabe kept coming over and insisting on her comebank as a team cantain!! She refused at first but later was convinced when Manabe brought up the topic how great and hardworking Takeshita and Araki were as a national team captain .Thing must have been totally different if she remained firmly on her initial decision .

Back to the topic, Hitsamitsu seems to be on the way back to their usual form, even Nana Iwasaka managed to play some decent volleyball last weekend, good sign :D.

Quote from brahmin

Manabe will call her because she is better than all of the other middles that Japan has. She won two medals with him in 2010 and 2012. The middle is Japanese greatest weakness right now. They have a great offense (it may take them 12 chances, after digging everything), but the blocking is what kills them. At the World Cup, they finished 5th, but they averaged 1.69 blocks per set (68 blocks/40.13 sets played (48 points per set)), which was 10th out of 12 teams. Even with block rebounds Japan was 7th at 6.28 rebounds per set (252 rebounds/40.13 sets played). When put together Japan was 8th at 7.97 block touches per set (blocks+rebounds/sets played).

The teams that finished in front of Japan
China 3.39 blocks (2nd), 7.39 rebounds (2nd), 10.78 block touches (2nd)
Russia 3.50 blocks (1st), 6.59 rebounds (6th), 10.09 block touches (4th)
Serbia 3.27 blocks (4th), 7.28 rebounds (3th), 10.55 block touches (3rd)
USA 3.15 blocks (5th), 7.76 rebounds (1st), 10.91 block touches (1st)

So Japan is about 1.5 blocks behind the USA, only 0.3 rebounds behind Russia and 2.1 block touches behind Russia. That could work out to 2 points a set, and you need to win by 2 points right?

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OMG, such an insightful piece of information, thanks so much for sharing this, Brahmin .

Im fully aware of the fact the middle is the weakest link rite now for Japan, not only in domestic leagues but also in national team as well. Watching all the so-called best MBs in V-leagues at the moment like Iwasaka, Itoh, Ono, Hiramatsu etc is such a pain coz none of them excel in what they do. Shimamura and Ohtake are good but still need more experiences to reach the level of former national team MB such as Araki, Inoue, Otomo.

My point is that Manabe always seems to have a questionable choice regarding the MB. Like in 011, 2 main MBs i.e Otomo and Inoue could not play for national team due to injury. And out of various available choices for a good MBs back then, he chose to stick with Iwasaka and call up Kazuyo Mori of Okayama. While Iwasaka had a decent performance, Kazuyo Mori totally do nothing at all. Besides, Araki was already back to duty in 2014-2015 season and performed incredible as ever. Yet, she did not make the final list of 2015 national team. Shimamura was also a last minutes choice for national team, i think, but at least she managed to have a decent performance.

About Toray, I think the middle has always been their weakest link since the departure of Erika Araki. Three national team wing spikers i.e. Sakoda, Saori and Takada simply could not lift the team up for a long long season. So Dixon is the best inclusion for the team since forever, at least at the moment, she is doing more than fantastic, adding a lot more variety on offensive game and great block skill too. Hopefully Toray will keep up with this pace and make the final this season.

I also truly hope Araki will come back to the national team after watching her recent games though i highly doubt Manabe would ever call her again.

Quote from samsara

I should have made clearer my earlier post, that's a CHN team under the head coach Lang Ping (she's on duty since 2013) and playing the core (A) team.

And commercial-wise FIVB will be quite happy to see both CHN and JPN get through the 2016 Rio OG from the Asian continent

China A team was beaten by Japan B team last year at the 3rd round of WGP :-). FYI : http://www.fivb.org/vis_web/volley/WGP2014a/pdf/P2-054.pdf