It's July now. This time, we'll be looking at the opposites.
#1 Kunihiro Shimizu
The first time I saw Shimizu was at the 2007 World Cup, when he made his debut for the national team. I had heard in magazines that he had been playing in the World League that year and had been doing great despite being a university student, so I was looking forward to seeing him with my own eyes. And then the World Cup began. At the time, the men's national team had made it to the quarterfinals for the first time in a long time at the World Championships held in Japan the previous year, and was in high spirits. I believe he was in the starting lineup from the first match and did well. He had a physique and power that was out of the reach of a university student, jumps that seemed to stop in the air, and a beautiful form. His spikes were also easy to hit. He was 7cm shorter than Yamamoto, who was 2m tall and was also an opposite for the Japanese national team at the time, but he played a dynamic game that didn't make him feel any smaller. It was amazing. I honestly thought that even if Yamamoto was gone, as long as Shimizu was there, we'd be fine. In fact, either one of them performed just as well. That was the impression I had of "Monster Gori" when he made his debut. He also played well in the final qualifying round for the Beijing Olympics, contributing to Japan's first appearance in the Olympics in 16 years. He continued to play in Beijing. The following year, he won the bronze medal at the Grand Champions Cup, beating Poland led by Krek, who was 21 years old at the time, and also won the best scorer award. His classmate, Fukuzawa, also won the best spiker award, foreshadowing the arrival of the Shimizu-Fukuzawa era.
But the reality was not so sweet. While Shimizu was winning the Most Valuable Player award in the V-League and making the top six almost every year, and was maturing as a player, the Japanese national team was once again entering a dark age. To be honest, the Japanese national team from 2010 to around 2014 was really boring. The only player I was excited to watch was Yoneyama (Toray), and I really didn't feel like cheering for him. Shimizu, like Fukuzawa, made many mistakes with his serves, and his spikes were often sold with too much force and shut out by the opponent's block, so he didn't shine as he had before. The "Shimizu-Fukuzawa era," which was supposed to be the next era of hope, has become synonymous with the "dark age," at least in my mind, and my impression of Shimizu has changed to a negative one.
The 2015 World Cup came in the midst of all this. The Ishikawa-Yanagi fever was incredible, but Shimizu also showed such a brilliant performance that he was reborn against the world's best players. Until then, I had the impression that he was literally pushing through with power and losing points, but from this tournament onwards, instead of forcing hard hits, he started to use soft hits and controlled shots to score points and take rallies to his advantage. The same went for his serves, and serves that were slightly relaxed and sure to attack the course were quite effective. This was the birth of the "technical Gori" that is still popular today (laughs). I remember being very happy about this, as it meant that I had grown to like Gori as a player.
He then suffered a serious injury, during which he lost his place in the starting lineup for the national team to the next generation monster Nishida, but he made a miraculous comeback and remains Japan's top opposite even now at the age of 34. His jumps seem to be lower than they were in his physical prime, but his skills make up for that and he performed well in VNL2021 in Nishida's absence. There's no doubt that he remains an indispensable player for Japan. Shimizu today has some similarities to Ogino, Shimizu's senior at high school and captain at the time of the Beijing Olympics.
Also, when I watch interviews with him, he looks tough but exudes a nice personality (laughs). I want to see Gori rampaging at Ariake Arena, and also seeing his smiling face.
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