Posts by sitenoise

Quote from skorost

She's not? omg

We batted around the idea and there was gossip that JVA liked her but as far as I know it's just speculation at this point. There's no announcement on the JVA page AFAICT

Quote from Blue Moon

Wait since the Asian Championships are happening on October will Yoshihara continue with the existing squad or will she have to form a new squad? Who is the assistant coach? And who will be JT's coach?

Japan isn't attending the Asian Championships, and Yoshihara isn't the new coach ... unless I missed the announcement

"... plans to postpone ..." is a curious phrase

Quote from staccato lightning

Denso's captain is a mystery. I have never seen her do anything for that club. She was in Hisamitsu before but did not stand out.

So true

Denso is odd. They're like the Saltine of crackers.

I need some new favorite players. Murooka and Mandai are out of context now. Nao Horigome isn't even playing. There hasn't been a 9-ball tournament in ages

I plan to stan Ligare Sendai this year unless the Summer League was a fluke, and I want to go all in for Hitachi, but sans Sato it's not as fun. I'm working on Ruriko Uesaka. I hope she has a bust out year

Quote from Phoenix

Foluke is likely to return to Saga since Saga has been updating USA's wins more than Ishii's involvement in the NT lol. KRob is playing for Toyota who is currently at 11th place which is very sus to me. Who does Denso have? SWP has it good since NEC is a solid team. Do they even need her jk I wanna see her

Weird that there have been no rumors about a Denso import. I wish SWP went there. NEC doesn't need her. Seems counter-productive to me. Nanami Hirose, among others, should transfer hope the heck out of there

You folks probably saw the news but I don't think it was posted here that Yuki Ishii doesn't want to end on a remote-retirement. She wants to give it to the fans, bask in their love, so she's going to hang with SAGA (or somewhere?). Done with the NT though. As if

Yahoo!

Quote from barnabas

Watch her serve at 10:14.

Ha! That old school serve. Uchiseto used to do that

Quote from werka

i’m so happy for annie, this tournament she has been nothing but solid with her spikes and even a few crucial blocks and aces here and there. But more than that, her willingness to embrace her role and step up for the team made me even love her more.

I'm happy for you being happy for Annie. She had some super moments

I'm living mostly vicariously these days

Quote from Sidney

Technically they would've been #1 without this gold medal.

In conclusion: Brazil should've won

For the record, I'm liking your post because it was well played, not because I necessarily agree or disagree with the conclusion

Quote from Nghiphong

JPN produced a lot of decent MBs in attacking back then. Even the great Tomoko Yoshihara was cut off from national Team due to being too old for Olympic at 25-26ish. Sometimes in 00s, they did attempt to switch a few MBs to OPP coz Shin did not attack from back row while those MBs could do that at ease lol.

However, when it's come to outstanding blocking skill, their very last solid MB is Kaori Inoue. She was a force to reckon in 2009 and 2010, being the only JPN MB to produce 10 kill blocks in a match against top tier Teams. And she did it more than twice. Unfortunately, she could never play that awesome again due to the knee injury in 2011.

This is all before my time. I'm familiar with Kaori Inoue from watching a few golden era youtubes. But who is this Shin? I think I know who you are talking about from old clips. There was a couple tough cookies. One was a MB that Altinli alerted me to, Sugiyama. But since I wasn't around then and the video archives are kinda crummy it's a blank zone, mostly.

Also, I usually just write off the blocking part of a MB and only think about them scoring (or not). I should be more realistic

This is a cool photo from 2003 World cup. Seeing Saori with Yoshihara (Kurihara, Sano and Takeshita, too). And I'm embarrassed to say I know the setter there, #2 Chie Tsuji, as the Director of the Yamanashi Central Bank Sporting Bears

Setter is going to be interesting and important coming up.

No dis to Momii or Seki but I'd like to see a non-Nakada picked setter, just for kicks

Matsui is a name I think most people here are familiar with. I like her, a lot, and think she will be in the mix but I dunno.

A few others less familiar:

Manami Mandai. She was the Golden Girl setter in college for 4 years. Very frenetic and nervy. She won a couple championships, and she did it with middle-blockers. The 2019 CH was MVP and best MB Haruka Maruo. The MB in 2020 CH was non-playing NEC member now Moeka Kinoe. She was best scorer and best spiker. That's crazy! It's not like she was great, but Mandai knew how to use her, in large quantity. What I've seen of Mandai with SAGA so far hasn't been impressive, so time will tell.

Hitomi Shiode. No awards or Championships at Uni, and only an Asian Cup as far as NT. Something about her strikes me. She doesn't decide her play ahead of time. Often it looks like "Oh, you're here. Okay, hit this". She will likely show up in V1 this December. Or not. Maybe she goes 9-ball. Lots of good setters there. She's 175cm and likes to block

Tsukasa Nakagawa. Her work with World Champ 2019 U20 was brilliant. She's 159cm so it ain't gonna happen

Nonoka Yamazaki. Saitama's setter. I don't think many know her name. I had to look it up just now to be sure. She did very good work last year. Will be interesting to see if she keeps playing now that Tominaga is back.

Quote from Karl

There's another strong spiker in Okayama Seagulls who might be half-Black? I'm not sure. I can't remember her name or jersey number. Not an opp but I think she's one of their scorers

Aoi An Furukawa. We already covered her kinda. She's wonderful, except you hold your breath when she's going to pass the ball. She could improve that, though

Quote from brahmin

Defense for Japan is never a problem. There is a difference between stops the ball from hitting the floor and digging to use for attack.

Blocking is a problem. Attacking with shorter players is a problem.
Japan has never been about the middle and hence the left side of the nets where they attack from. If you know where the ball is going then it is much easier to set up the block and the defense.

If the setter is in the middle of the court when in the front row, at least the opposition has to decide which one to focus on. Plus still giving the back row a chance or even the setter dump. May suck on the blocking, or only use it on the first ball and then shift.

MB is a shortcoming, a problem. How to improve? Get a coach who insists on it, and a setter/MB team that you don't just slap together a few weeks before a tournament. Make them work together like mad.

Height? Ebata 176cm, Sakoda 175cm. The Kurogo and Koga are 180, what is the magic number? Mayu is 173 or 4 and she didn't do too bad. Nagaoka was 180 but I think she would have been as successful at 173 It's not like she was hitting over the block. YOLO can jump as high as her. Saori was unto herself. I'm not holding my breath for another 185cm player who can attack and receive like her, not to mention her good vibes.

This isn't like that baseball movie: "Build it and they will come" kind of thing where if Japan changes their game to the modern offensive power game (whatever it's called) ... taller players will just come along. They are short. It's been millennia in the making and not going to change through wishful thinking. They need to adapt their game to what they have, not to what we might wish they had.

"There is a difference between stops the ball from hitting the floor and digging to use for attack." If Bosco fires one into zone 1 and the defensive player can't handle it, things move on. You don't see the body language of the whole team slouch, and there's no pointing fingers. But these silly balls that land in front of the 3 point line spread toxic bad vibes all over. They are debilitating. Every player looks at the others like "?". I think that's huge. Japan have to fix and eliminate that.

Japan did up their back court play a bit and it was mildly helpful. More of that, please. But where was the combination game? Nowhere. You are spot on right that Japan can't play a predictable left side game. They need middles, combination play, back court attacks and an OP who can and will attack in zone 3.

Quote from adele

Japan really need to do big reformation in the team. Change all the mindset. They need to be more enthusiastic in attacking, show some violence, spirits. This point also goes for the defensive side. Improving the defense as well as the floor defense may also lead in bringing other players, (ofc miyashita is included). There are a lot of things to do before the qualification period

I don't know how you teach or improve defense. I mean, things like standing in the right place according to where the blocker is and where that means the hole the attacker is likely to hit through, yes. That brainy stuff De Genarro knows. Kobata to an extent.

But the quick reactive, dive like you mean it, intuitive, courageous defense of someone like the famous Syuka Kaneda? How do you teach that?

I'm an idealist and a romantic. I say start with players who clearly show a propensity for defense and work from there. It seems nonsensical to me to start with good attackers and think Japan is going to outscore anyone in the international game if they don't play defense.

Quote from serdar

JPN: Araki and ???

I am not expert at Japanes volleyball, maybe sitenoise can make a through analysis on who will retire before Paris and if it will weaken the team or not

Araki and Yuki Ishii for sure. Ishii already announced, and she was basically gone already anyway and yes, losing her and Risa Shinnabe weakened the team considerably.

I think all the middle blockers except the young Yamada will be gone. Shimamura still has a lot of bounce in her step, so not sure about her. There are a few interesting youngster MBs coming up like Ayaka Araki, Mami Yokota, and I still believe in U20 heroine Shion Hirayama, but MB is a place where "experience" helps a lot so I think it's going to be a tough transition.

I don't think there will be any more retiring. It's basically a youngish squad, but some others may fade away quietly.

Bottom line for me is Ishikawa and the Kurogo on court at the same time is never going to win anything. It's makes the chemistry of the whole team reek of bad vibes. They are the two darlings of the team but one of them has to go. that's going to be the new coach's hardest decision.

Quote from Hassan Kadem

That's way too long. What's on her jersey? Oba?

Is Kitsui not considered strong? She tore Saga a new one iirc

Okumu Oba is on her shirt. I call her Fuyumi

Kitsui seems great at what she was called upon to do: be the two card . I don't think she's a full match player, honestly.

Melissa Valdes, Fuyumi Hawi Okumu Oba, Aoi An Furukawa (?). Assuming Valdes naturalizes they are among the 'strongest' Japanese attackers. But holy yikes if you think Japan's defense is bad now. Throw Arisa Inoue in there as backup. OMG

Quote from Metro Volleyball

I see what you did there

I missed it the first time I read it but yeah, well-played skorost

Quote from Hassan Kadem

it will be reset from there. this 2020-21 squad is done.

i don't know who would make good additions since i dont follow vleague closely. but if valdes doesn't do well during vleague, who else would be considered promising? everyone was saying how strong hawi? from hitachi? is but she never made the nt. is osanai a good option? there's also that girl from okayama Japanese fans love bringing up but has never done any matches outside okayama. should soga be considered? more importantly how will yoshihara approach the issue of a regular setter? will she stick with momii and nurture her? i think momii's works well with koga, mayu and hayashi so as much as possible i still want her to grow from here.

Syuka Kaneda no respect, man

Here's an honest question, although I don't know quite how to ask it:

Improving the Kurogo's defense or improving Kaneda's offense? Which would be easier/more likely to succeed?

I would personally work on Kaneda but I'm biased.

I would also focus on Hayashi because she has defense in her blood.

It's too bad Minami Takaso is only 164cm because she's one of the smartest, hardest working players in V.League