On the fourth day of the first week of the Nations League, the Japan men's volleyball team played against Serbia and won 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-20).
First set starting lineup
Japan
OH: Ai Takahashi, Ishikawa
MB: Onodera, Yamauchi
OP: Nishida
S: Sekita
L: Yamamoto
Serbia
OH: Kujundzic, Peric
MB: Krasmanovic, Nedeljkovic
OP: Lubrich
S: Batak
L: Couple
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
In the first set, the game was close at first, but Japan took a 10-7 lead thanks to consecutive points from OH Takahashi's service aces. However, Serbia managed to turn the game around with a 15-16 lead thanks to OP Luburic's spikes. After that, Japan continued to make serve errors and was unable to seize the break chance, and in the end, MB Nedeljkovic stopped OH Ishikawa's spike to give Serbia a 22-25 lead.
In the second set, Serbia started off with consecutive blocks and took a 0-4 lead, but Japan quickly turned the game around with 8-7 thanks to MB Onodera's blocks and OH Ishikawa's pipes from solid defense. From there, OP Nishida made a series of spikes to widen the gap to 20-15. In the final stages, OH Peric's spikes and service aces brought Serbia within two points at 20-18, but OP Miyaura, who came in as a substitute, made a service ace, and OP Nishida, who was in good form at the end, made a solid run to win the set 25-21.
In the third set, Japan started with MB Kentaro Takahashi instead of MB Yamauchi. Japan scored the first point with a quick from MB Takahashi, and then extended their lead to 12-9 by the middle of the game with spikes from OH Ai Takahashi and a service ace from OP Nishida. In the final stages, Serbia tied the score at 20-20 with a service ace from MB Klasmanovic and a mistake from Japan, but after taking side-outs mainly from spikes from OP Nishida, Japan won the set with a pipe attack of OH Ishikawa at 25-23.
In the fourth set, Japan's OP Nishida and Serbia's OH Peric scored points from the beginning, and the game was evenly matched, with Japan leading the way to 14-14. From there, MB Takahashi Kentaro scored consecutive quicks to put Japan ahead at 16-14, and then S Sekita's service ace and OH Ishikawa's spike led to consecutive breaks to widen the gap to 20-15. At the end, OP Luburic's serve was an error, and Japan won the set 25-20, defeating Serbia 3-1 and marking their second consecutive opening win.
With this, Japan's overall record in the VNL qualifying round now stands at two wins and six points.
personal MVP
Japan: Nishida Yuji
24 points (1 serve, 1 block), attack effectiveness rate 56.25%
Nishida is back. There were concerns about his uncharacteristic play from the friendly match to Tuesday's match against Iran, but in the match against Serbia, he produced a lot of points with his "if he hits it, it's going to be decided" style, reminiscent of last year's World Championship match against France. His attack success rate was an astonishing 68.75%. His jumps were higher than before, and he often spiked on straight courses. It was amazing. Maybe he ate a high-quality banana? (laughs). However, although he had one ace, more than half of his serves were serve errors, so we will have to wait until his serve returns before he can make a full recovery.
Runner-up: Kentaro Takahashi (6 points, 100% attack effectiveness)
Serbia: Pavle Peric
22 points (1 serve, 4 blocks), attack effectiveness rate 50.00%
A 207cm tall outside hitter, he continued to score even when Serbia was in a difficult situation. He also made a big contribution with his blocks, but he also lost a lot of points on serve reception, and overcoming this issue will be the deciding factor for whether he can maintain his place in the starting lineup even after the main players return.
Thoughts etc.
Contrary to my prediction before the match, it was a tough match, but we managed to win 3-1 and get 3 points. In the first set, Japan struggled with the unstoppable Luburic and the many service errors (8), but from the second set onwards, they made great corrections and won the match.
First of all, Nishida was amazing. He was in full gorilla mode (laughs). While the other starters were doing well, Nishida was the only one struggling, so I think it was a big plus for the team to break through here so early in the second game of the tournament.
However, as someone who personally supports Miyaura, I am disappointed that he is now a little further away from the starting lineup. However, he also scored an ace early on in this match with his first serve of the Nations tournament, and I expect him to perform even better than Nishida did today if he plays the full game, so I guess it won't be a problem (laughs).
Also, Kentaro Takahashi, who came on as a substitute, did a really good job. He took over for Yamauchi, who struggled with blocking compared to the Iran match, and although he only got block points in the third and fourth sets, he got a lot of block touches and put pressure on the Serbian attackers, which contributed greatly to Japan's break. He also had a 100% success rate with 6/6 spikes. He did miss some spikes, so he needs to make some corrections, but he had an outstanding presence. However, he wasn't putting much pressure on the serve, so I think that's an issue.
Of course, the other players were great as usual, and Ryujin Nippon showed their strength as a team in this match as well. In particular, Ai Takahashi had many highlights, including two service aces and a foot dig. However, there were many points lost due to spikes, so I hope they will fix that next time.
On the other hand, the opponent, Serbia, was a team with a young core but high offensive and blocking power. In addition to Peric mentioned above, OP Luburic had an incredible attack success rate of 1001 TP3T in the first set. However, it was a shame that the sets were biased towards the sides and there were few mid-range attacks. Japan also faced Serbia in this year's Paris Olympic qualifiers, but this time most of their main players, such as OH Kovacevic and MB Lisinac, were not playing, so it was a completely different game and will be an even tougher match for Japan.
By the way, did you get to talk to Lubrich and Fukatsu-san, who were former teammates? (laughs)
The next match will be against Bulgaria on Saturday 10th June at 7:10pm.
This team is also mainly made up of young players, but they have players with height and explosive power such as Nikolov, so we expect it to be another tough battle.
The opponents for the first week of VNL are summarized in this article ↓
Good luck next time, Ryujin Nippon!!!
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Photo: FIVB
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