On the fifth day of the men's VNL2021, the Japanese national team faced world number one Brazil, losing 0-3 in straight sets for the first time in the tournament. This was their second consecutive loss, following their loss to Serbia the day before. Brazil was still Brazil.
Japan match results
vs Brazil ●0-3 (20-25, 16-25, 20-25)
Starting lineup for the first set (serving order)
Japan
OH 14 Ishikawa
MB 6 Yamauchi
OP 1 Shimizu
OH 17 Takanashi
MB 15 Lee
S3 Fujii
L 20 Yamamoto
Brazil
OH 14 Dogras
MB 13 Mauricio
OP 8 Warase
OH 9 Real
MB 12 Isaac
S6 Ferdinand
L 17 Thales
As expected, it was Brazil. Brazil was strong. In the early part of the first set, Japan's strategy of targeting and breaking down the opponent's OH Real, who had a weak serve reception, was successful, and Japan was able to take the lead thanks to the opponent's mistakes. However, Real scored two consecutive service aces, widening the gap in the middle of the set. Brazil thoroughly targeted Ishikawa with their serves, preventing Ishikawa from participating in the attack and successfully reducing Japan's attacks from the center, such as quick and pipe. On the other hand, Japan was unable to continue attacking with their serves, and suffered from the strong quick of the opponent's MB Isac, losing the first set 20-25. Isac's quick was really brutal. The volleyball that Japan wanted to play was being done by the opponent. However, I think Takanashi, who was able to collect the ball while Ishikawa was being broken down, did a great job.
In the second set, we replaced the libero with Ogawa to strengthen the reception. In this set, we also had a good fight when the opponent made mistakes in the early stages, but when the opponent settled down, the gap widened at once. Ishikawa was still targeted, and he was not able to return a good pass. There were also two scenes where no-touch aces were scored between Ishikawa and Ogawa, but I wondered if the new recruit Ogawa and Ishikawa, who was late in joining the team, still had not been able to work together. This set ended 16-25.
The third set started with Shimizu replaced by Otsuka, Ishikawa replaced by Fukuzawa, and Fujii replaced by Oya. This time, Fukuzawa was broken down instead of Ishikawa. The spikes were hard to hit. The serve was also weak. Brazil was good at serving and blocking, but also at digging and connecting, so there was no chance for us to take advantage. As the game drew to a close, Yamauchi and Lee's consecutive blocks from the middle exploded, but it was too late. In the end, Fukuzawa, the oldest player, was shut out cleanly and the game was set at 20-25.
Photo by FIVB
The reason for the loss must have been Ishikawa's reception. He wasn't in better form than usual, perhaps because he hadn't recovered from his illness. Looking at the numbers, his attack success rate was very high at 54.551 TP3T, but he had few strokes and was successfully shut down by Brazil. I know that Ishikawa is being watched, so I hope he does his best next time. I think it would be a good idea to try a rotation of Ishikawa at 5th and Takahashi Ai at 2nd, in order to reduce the burden on Ishikawa's reception.
Other match results
Slovenia 3:0 Argentina
Netherlands 3:2 Germany
Serbia 3:2 France
Iran 3:1 Italy
Poland 3:0 USA
Russia 3:0 Australia
Canada 3:0 Bulgaria
Serbia came back from 0-2 down to win against France. There is no team that has won all of their matches. It's a close race! The Netherlands also won against Germany, earning their first win in the tournament. Australia is now the only team that has lost all of their matches.
Photo by FIVB
Standings (as of the end of Day 5)
- Russia: 4 wins, 13 points
- Poland 4 wins 12 points
- Slovenia 4 wins 12 points
- Brazil 4 wins 12 points
- France 4 wins 12 points
- Serbia 4 wins 11 points
- Iran 3 wins 9 points
- Japan 3 wins 7 points
- Germany 2 wins 8 points
- Canada 2 wins 6 points
- USA 2 wins 6 points
- Bulgaria 1 win 5 points
- Netherlands 1 win 3 points
- Italy 1 win 2 points
- Argentina 1 win 2 points
- Australia 0 wins 0 points
*Rankings are determined by number of wins > points > set rate > point rate.
Day 6 Schedule
5th (Sat)
Netherlands-Argentina 17:00～
Slovenia-Germany 19:00～
Japan-France 20:00～
Brazil-Serbia 22:00～
Russia-Poland 23:30～
6th (Sun)
America-Australia 1:00～
Bulgaria-Iran 2:30～
Canada-Italy 4:00～
*Times are Japan time
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How to watch the online broadcast of "Volleyball Nations League 2021"!
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