At the end of the fourth day of the men's Nations League 2021, the Japanese national team lost 1-3 to Serbia, suffering their first loss of the tournament.
Japan match results
vs Serbia ●1-3 (25-18, 26-25, 22-25, 13-25)
Starting lineup for the first set (serving order)
Japan
S Fujii
OH Ai Takahashi
MB Yamauchi
OP Shimizu
OH Takanashi
MB Onodera
L. Yamamoto
Serbia
OH IVOVIC
MB Podrascanin
S Jovovic
OH Kovacevic
MB Krsmanovic
L Pekovich
The match against Serbia was played without Ishikawa due to illness. How would Japan hold up against the 2019 European champions without Ishikawa? With the same momentum as the match against Russia, Japan took the lead from the start with an ideal game. They focused serves on OH Ivovic, who was weak in defense, and disrupted the reception, narrowing down their offensive options and picking up the ball with a total defense of blocks and receptions. And they were able to connect it to their own attacks in an ideal way. On the other hand, Serbia was unable to break down Japan with their serves, and setter Fujii was able to use quicks aggressively from the beginning and side out. They took the first set with a large margin of 25-18 without any trouble.
It seemed like things would continue smoothly, but in the end, that was all. In the second set, Serbia replaced Luburic with Atanasevich as the opposite. From here, Serbia's engine started to kick in. Serbia's receptions started to be returned to the setter, and Japan was unable to pick up the opponent's attacks. Serbia's serve and block also started to work, and Japan's success rate dropped. Still, they managed to hang on, mainly with Takanashi, but they were one step behind and lost the second set 23-25.
The third set continued in a bad way, and Japan replaced Ai Takahashi with Otsuka, Shimizu and Fujii with Otake and Sekita, and Yamauchi with Kentaro Takahashi. They started to gain momentum with block points, but Serbia did not allow them to follow up. Otake, who had a strong turnaround in the match against Russia, was back to his usual low-passing Otake on this day and was caught by a block. In this way, they lost the third set 22-25. However, Takanashi played his role well even in the bad mood, and it seemed that if he could get some momentum in the fourth set, he could turn the game around like he did in the match against Russia. However, in the fourth set, Takanashi was finally caught and there was no way to do anything. Serbia, who was in top form, made nine blocks in the fourth set alone, mainly on both middle shots, and as a result, Japan lost this set by a large margin of 13-25, resulting in a game set. They suffered their first loss of the tournament 1-3.
Takanashi is blocked by Serbia's block. Photo by FIVB
It's frustrating, but I think this is his current ability. I hope he will use this as motivation to move forward and do his best!!
Other match results
Germany 2:3 Argentina
Iran 3:1 Canada
Brazil 0:3 France
Netherlands 0:3 Slovenia
Australia 0:3 Poland
Italy 3:2 Bulgaria
Russia 3:1 USA
Kevin Tilley of France attacks. Photo by FIVB
France-Brazil 3-0 (39-37, 25-18, 30-28)
Today's best match was a close one from the first set. France won the long first set with tenacious defense and went on to win in straight sets against world number one Brazil. With this, France is now the only team with a perfect record.
Standings (as of the end of Day 4)
- France: 4 wins, 11 points
- Russia 3 wins 10 points
- Poland 3 wins 9 points
- Slovenia 3 wins 9 points
- Brazil 3 wins 9 points
- Serbia 3 wins 9 points
- Japan 3 wins 7 points
- Germany 2 wins 7 points
- USA 2 wins 6 points
- Iran 2 wins 6 points
- Bulgaria 1 win 5 points
- Canada 1 win 3 points
- Italy 1 win 2 points
- Argentina 1 win 2 points
- Netherlands 0 wins 1 point
- Australia 0 wins 0 points
*Rankings are determined by number of wins > points > set rate > point rate.
Day 5 Schedule
The time is Japan time.
Friday 4th
Argentina-Slovenia 17:00～
Netherlands-Germany 19:00～
Japan-Brazil 20:00～
Serbia-France from 22:00
Iran-Italy 23:30～
5th (Sat)
Poland-USA 1:00~
Russia-Australia 2:30～
Canada-Bulgaria 4:00～
Please refer to the following article for how to watch the live broadcast.
How to watch the online broadcast of "Volleyball Nations League 2021"!
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