Aug 31, 2013

Volleyball Blues

Sapporo, Hokkaido( north of Japan) is hosting the Volleyball Grand Prix Finals this year. Six teams: Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, Serbia and USA will compete for the gold medal. 2013 might mean something to the Brazilian team because they have won the tournament the last three times (2005, 2008, 2009) when the finals were held in Sapporo. My bet is on Brazil, China and Serbia. Brazil and China have not been beaten after three straight games, whereas the Japanese team did win over Italy but lost mercifully to Brazil and Serbia two nights ago.

It was not pleasant to watch at all. Jun kept saying Japan will lose. Watching those commanding spikes and mastery blocks, all unmistakenly generating free points to the winner teams all I can do is just shaked my head, slammed my right fist to my left hand and felt gloomy. The Japanese team made so much mistakes. They were probably outplayed by 'Power' teams. All the Japanese spikes were returned by spikes that produced points. All the blokes by the winners produce points, compared to the Japanese team.

Tonight, Japan will play against China at 7pm. Although my bet is on China, I am still going to watch it because I love watching sports on TV :) Maybe a miracle will happen and China will lose, although I doubt it. Earnestly, the Japanese team needs to start recruiting tall setter players. Be it scouting the whole country, the Japan Volleyball Association just need to make an effort to do what the China team is doing, or else the Japanese team can just forget about winning and even gaining the third place in tournaments. This is just the way to win. Afterall, volleyball game benefits the team that has tall players.





 

3 comments:

AngrySeaOtter said...

Sorry to read about Japan's loss to China today (well more like last night for me with the time difference!). They are still doing much better than USA, who are in last place with 1 point! Are you cheering more for China or Brazil (or neither)?

Sachiko Matsuda said...

The Japan team lost to China due to lack of power. Sigh!!!
(Hitting my hands to the table(exaggeration, LOL)) I made up my mind few years ago after watching the volleyball games that it is about power and heights. Not much technical gameplan is needed!!!

The Japan team could have beaten China and America. (still exaggerating)(LOL)

Oh well :)

Nevertheless, kudos to those tiny Japanese girls who fought against those 20cms taller than them players!

*Congratulations on America beating Japan

Sachiko Matsuda said...

I think Brazil has better gameplan. Hmm. May the best wins!