Posts by sean1

Quote from sitenoise

Iwasaka strikes me as everybody's mom. Hardly snobby but it's a subjective call. Sato's problem is she doesn't have an authentic smile. She doesn't strike me as snobby either but she's certainly not a party happy girl.

As for Miyashita, are you talking about Haruka Miyashita who plays for Okayama?

I'm not particularly familiar with Iwasaka's personality but she seems incredibly cold to me. I like her though. I'm not sure about that motherly vibe.

Which part about Miyashita do you disagree? I happen to love her

Quote from Phoenix

If we're talking about current hype then Mayu would be #1 followed by Kurogo then Miyashita because of the backlash of using Sato instead of her lol

Also, Miyu is always on variety shows with Sakoda and Kimura back then, they were the trinity of promoting Hinotori. With Miyu having at least 16 features of her playing the piano back to back. So yeah I would rank her in the top 3

I feel sorry for Iwasaka I kinda like her but she's practically a ghost

Iwasaka and Sato have that snobby aura going on. It's hard to warm up to them. Miyashita kinda has the same kind of intimidating aura but I don't even know where to begin with that girl. The only thing you'll ever see is her crashing on the floor and crying a million times in every game win or lose

Quote from beri

in theory both Hande and Thompson can play for Boskovic when needed and Fatma can come in, I'm sure this will happen but in the past Tijana has always been overused and she is captain now so yea Idk

I'd like to see more of Hande. That girl's prowess is immense

Quote from brahmin

Saori opened the coffee shop last year with her husband.

I would put the players in order my thoughts of popularity for the last decade. 2010-2012 team is still very well known.

1. Saori Kimura

2. Yoshie Takeshita
3. Saori Sakoda

4. Erika Araki

5. Sarina Koga

6. Haruka Miyashita

7. Miyu Nagaoka

8. Risa Shinnabe

9. Yurie Nabeya

10. Yuki Ishii
11. Ai Kurogo

12. Mayu Ishikawa

13. Nana Iwasaka

Iwasaka is just kind of there. Not much of a personality. Shinnabe was known due to longevity and 2012 games.

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I would put Nagaoka on top of Araki but Araki would be 5th. Even now. Nagaoka's merch would always sell out and the lines for her hi touch or however you spell that is always the longest. She also regularly scores high on any poll within Asia and in Japan.

Takeshita being #2 is weird to me

Quote from werka

EczV beats THY

What's the score?

Miyashita's popularity is very unexpected both in Japan and overseas. She's almost at Nagaoka's level of popularity. Maybe because she's one of the few who started out very young and got into NT at a very young age. She's quite the enigma but if I had to describe her I'd say she's an unassuming, extremely sensitive ice queen

Quote from Jeniawithlove

so Japan, Thailand, Taiwan are at similar height, why Japan can't block Thailand & Taiwan? Height is not playing a key factor in here.

NOBODY, not FIVB, not Thailand and certainly not Taiwan have ever said that Japan cannot block them or any other team for that matter. Only you did. It's a matter of pushing your opinion on the matter despite Japan being miles better than them in that aspect.

Quote from inc0gnito

Turkey can be dangerous if they are on fire. And I know everyone is doubting Russia, but we never know what form they will show. Only China I think is pretty clear cut and to some extent Italy.

With how they're training now, I don't think anyone in their right mind would doubt Russia. They're definitely in it for the glory spot

Quote from Jeniawithlove

My argument on this will be just watch Japan vs Thailand or Japan vs Taiwan. The height of players in Thailand and Taiwan are similar with Japan. But Japan can't block them as well. You can't say they are lack of height. How to explain those that.

They just lack of training on blocking. The coaches in Japan don't know anything about Team blocking.

Taiwan has been lagging in years they haven't been notable in anything. Thailand's blocking system isn't world class either going by your terms of what world class deems. Neither of these countries should serve as examples against Japan's blocking.

Height still plays a major role no matter how you look at it.

Quote from Jeniawithlove

Nakada is a terrible coach in my opinion. She can't even make up her mind who is the main setter at this moment. Recall Miyu Nagaoka back to national team is disaster decision. Miyu Nagaoka just told she can't train 100% in club team in interview months before. But Nakada insisted to recall her. What Nakada did was just tell the rest of female players in Japan that no matter how hard you work, I just pick my preferences even they are not 100% in shape. You know how hard Japanese players train to be in Tokyo Olympics? She just break their dreams. Nakada is totally terrible coach. She needed to step down 2 years ago.

The worst part of Nakada is she has poor ideology of volleyball. She only knows "speed volleyball". She has been pushing the team to be fast to compete the strong teams. But it just doesn't work. Only being fast is just not enough to win the games. She couldn't figure another tactic to train the team. What a waste of 4 years!

Just because the men's team has won a couple of games doesn't make them an exceptional team. Internationally they're still scraping by.

Nakada's main dilemma is that she resorted to make a rash emergency decision to recall Miyu because she felt a veteran was needed to front for the NT, not because she's telling all the other rookies their efforts don't mean squat. If that was her message all along she shouldn't have gotten Seki because everyone knows Seki is a mediocre setter.

Imagine having Yuki Ishii as the main face of Women's NT, that's a whole joke right there but that was what Nakada was pulling mere months before Risa retired. Her forcing Miyu back is indeed a really really bad decision, she might as well tell Sakoda to come back

Quote from sitenoise

I wish the Olympics didn't get cancelled, because today we would have been done with this cycle and could move on with new blood, new vision.

Of course, if Japan doesn't medal in this cycle their whole volleyball world might disintegrate

Their men's team is overhyped and will continue to be overhyped due to that popular anime.

Their women's NT is somewhat in shambles due to Nakada's misguided optimism and at this point, overreliance on Miyu as Hinotori's ace and key figure despite all the red flags. Kurogo also seemingly hesitant about her skills post-injury. I also have issues with Nakada putting Sato as their main setter. Probably the worst time for me to be "interested" while they're experiencing drought. But when is V League? things might still turn around. I mean just last January they were making Ishii and Koga handle the hype train then all of a sudden it's Miyu, Mayu and Kurogo. It's erratic. I can see why people getting confused now.

Miyu on the cover of Monthy Volleyball September issue. Exclusive photos from the remote match including a 2 page interview with her and Erika

some fans are saying that Miyashita was removed from the NT to make way for Seki. Sato as main setter. The comments are pretty much scattered everywhere

the last link i was able to save is from here. you can see from the comments

Quote from Phoenix

A little update on Japan's 3 key players as mediaplayed by Nakada. The lack of their chosen setter is disappointing

Miyu still sticking with her 50% forced autospeech. I was really looking forward to her comeback but again there's plenty of empty phrases here and at this point it would probably be better if she retires already.

http://vbm.link/40822/

Here's Mayu and Kurogo talking about getting stronger. Kurogo talking about Mayu and Mayu being eager

http://vbm.link/40825/

http://vbm.link/40816/

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No player only able to give their 50% should be allowed to participate and Miyu is no exception.

Her, Iwasaka and Shinnabe's roles at Hisamitsu needs to be re-evaluated. Both Iwasaka and Miyu mention Shinnabe's retirement has affected their plans but why exactly would they allow Miyu who is clearly still in recovery mode and may not even ever be out of that stage to play for the NT.

Quote from sitenoise

Shiori Aratani is 173cm, same height as the 'short' Mayu Ishikawa. I had no idea about that. Just looked it up as I was watching these U20 matches. So the thought of her making the NT as a middle-blocker is unlikely. I've always thought of her as more of an OP (with NEC) but she's a straight up MB in these U20 matches. Her world is looking up, I think.

Himeji is a new team that won three matches last year in their V1 debut. But I think they've got a good organization. Masayoshi Manabe is the owner, Yoshi Takeshita Vice Pres, and those two U20 dudes hanging about. They are doing everything according to the new V.League vision and I think they have money and will start pilfering more good players ... and eventually sign a big foreigner much to my dismay.

She's definitely not MB material for NT. Her specialty is leaning towards the offense. She does a nice pipe too.

I don't recall hearing about Himeji in a long time aside from being Takeshita's team. I think she also wanted to get Miyashita in her team back then

Regarding Aratani, I think she's close to entering NT. International press wouldn't even have her in their radar if there was no hype around her. The timing of her leaving NEC to Himeji could be a catalyst. But I can't see her playing well with Mayu, everything is centering around Mayu with the exception of Kurogo lol

Quote from Phoenix

Not a good sign. Even if say, Nagaoka did school the sht out of them that's still really troubling. They already beefed up the Blue team and wouldn't even separate AiMayu which means their dynamic is really not working.

I made that comment to go with the photo since it wasn't included. I have no idea what happened there and I doubt any of us here do unless we see the full remote match which is not possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the biggest factor was Miyu but I'm only going by what I've seen from her before, I don't know the extent of her power anymore. Also, it's a solo shot which could be a hint

Quote from haru_12

Blue team...got Sato, Tashiro, Kurogo, Ishikawa, Iishi n Kobata

Nagaoka schooled them

Team Nagaoka (sorry Erika) vs. Team KurogoMayu

I hope I'm putting these photos right. Tell me if I flop

Who's that #18 girl in Team Nagaoka?

Quote from Phoenix

I don't doubt Shiori's potential, she seems more like a sloppy but less chaotic Nabeya in her current state. She does score like crazy but I mean NT already has Koga for that reckless scoring. But I do see what Shiori is capable of, strong attacks that are still in its raw stage. A hybrid would definitely suit her once she polishes her style.

You can't really compare Aratani to Nabeya. Nabeya at Aratani's age was plain mess. Of course there was a transition from plain mess to somehow a useful chaos from Nabeya. Aratani definitely has more control over her attacks and she has a smoother swing than Nabeya. Kubota from Hitachi is probably closer to Nabeya than Aratani. Aratani knows she's good, there's a level of confidence from her that's palpable and you can see during NEC's matches that Koga can't even keep up sometimes but Aratani is far more reliable on the court.

I know I sound like a huge fan right now LOL but I have high hopes for her. Perhaps her skillset isn't what's necessary for NT right now but perhaps in the near future when they realize what it is their team is exactly lacking which is a lot let's be real.