The 2022 Men's Volleyball World Championship. The Japanese men's national team defeated Qatar and Cuba to advance to the final tournament in second place in the qualifying pool and 11th place overall. However, their joy was short-lived as their first opponent in the tournament was France.
France is a strong team that won the gold medal at last year's Tokyo Olympics and also won the Nations League this year, and many are considering them as the favorite to win this year's tournament.
For Japan, this was the team they least wanted to face in the first match. This year, the first match of the Nations League Final was against France. It was a deja vu, with France being the champion after qualifying. However, I thought about how Ryujin Nippon could beat France in this tough situation.
French team
First, let me introduce our opponents, the French team.
Main starting lineup
Setter to serve
11 Brizard 196 340 S Piacenza (Italy)
#9 Nugapet 194 358 OH Modena (Italy)
#1 Sineniese 204 357 MB Civitanova (Italy)
#4 Patri 207 357 OP Milan (Italy)
17 Klewno 199 345 OH Jastrzebski (Poland)
14 Lugoff 206 365 MB Montpellier
#2 Grebennikov 188 345 L St. Petersburg (Russia)
As you can see, they all play for top clubs.
Other profiles and reserve players can be found here:
Team Characteristics
France is a defensive team. Their serve receive, blocking, and digging skills are very high and they don't break down easily. Rather than winning by doing what they want to do, they win by preventing their opponents from doing what they want to do.
In addition, they made very few mistakes; in fact, France had the lowest error rate of all the teams in the qualifying round.
The players themselves often mention that one of their strengths is the friendship they have among themselves. They are like brothers, and this relationship seems to come through in the game.
Player to watch: Jean Patrie (OP)
A large opposite with a height of 207cm. In the Nations League Final, he scored a lot of points against Japan, scoring 18 points in attacks (effectiveness rate 61.541 TP3T) and 1 block for a total of 19 points. He also won the best opposite award in the tournament. He is a player who becomes unstoppable once he gets going, so Japan would like to somehow put pressure on him and suppress his performance.
Ishikawa and I were teammates at Milan for two seasons, so Japan is looking forward to Ishikawa's blocking. However, Patry also knows the game. Japan and France played against each other twice this year at the Nations, but Ishikawa did not play in either match, so I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of battle will take place on the net!
Key Points for Conquering France
I would like to explain the key points for conquering France in three parts.
①Serve: At the very least, block the pipe attack of the rear guard OH
First of all, the serve is very important, but France's serve reception is very good, so it's not easy to break it. However, we have to apply pressure somehow.
So, I think it's a good idea to first target the back court outside hitter and block the back attack from the middle called the pipe. When Japan played against France in this year's Nations League, the success rate of this pipe attack was very high and they were quite troubled. If the back court OH can receive the serve in the center of the court, the pipe can be blocked relatively easily because it will prevent them from taking a run-up, so at the very least, do this.
Also, when Japan uses floater serves, the opposing libero Grebennikov tends to cover a wider area, so it might be a good idea to exploit that and aim for the very edge of his defensive range. However, it is generally not good to let the libero touch the serve receive, so I think it would be good to aim for it at key points.
After that, you can just hit a sharp jump serve between the receivers or down the sideline as usual. However, you have to be prepared for the ball to be returned easily if your aim is even a little off.
②Attack: Focus on quick and light attacks
In the Nations League Final, Japan's quick shots were very effective. In particular, Onodera's was very effective at 83.331 TP3T. On this day, the toss was not very good with Yamauchi, and he only had 37.501 TP3T, but in this tournament, he has shown high performance with 16 points in three matches and an effective rate of 57.141 TP3T. Therefore, I hope that he will continue to use his quick shots as the leader of the attack against France.
As for side attacks, I think they will attack from the right to the center. There are two main reasons for this. The first reason is that France's left-side block is stronger than their right-side block. The setter and OP (196, 207) are taller than the two OHs (194, 199), and the setter Brizard in particular has very high individual blocking skills.
The second reason is the presence of France's libero, Grebennikov. He digs a lot. He is particularly strong against balls coming from the cross direction, so attacks from the left side put even more pressure on him. On the other hand, from the right side, the libero is in a straight position, so it is difficult to be digged, and if the ball is picked up by hitting it cross, the setter or opposite will touch it, making it easier to defend afterwards. Therefore, I think attacks from the right side will also be a key point.
If you are attacking from the left, in addition to hitting straight, blocking out, and dropping forward with a feint, I think it is also effective to hit a super cross shot in front of the attack line. Slovenia, which made it to a full set against France in the qualifiers, scored many points with this super cross attack.
③Block: Put pressure on Patry
France is a team whose results depend heavily on Patry's condition. Although his performance has become more stable than before, he is still sometimes fragile compared to another scorer, OH Ngapet. Also, the reserve opposite, Boyer, is a player whose condition is quite inconsistent, so if you can prevent the starting opposite, Patry, from functioning, you can advance the game to your advantage.
Therefore, Japan would like to match up Patri with his teammate Ishikawa when he plays forward, and to some extent block Patri's scoring ability. So, I think Japan will probably start with Ishikawa at No. 5 (next to the opposite) and Takahashi at No. 2 (next to the setter) as the OH diagonal, just like in the match against Cuba.
You also need to be careful of the two attacks of the setter Brizard. He will come at you as soon as he gets the chance, lol. If you let him ride, his serve will be powerful, so it's troublesome. Let's defend it at all costs.
Japan's Key Person: Nishida Yuji (OP)
As they said that the key to the attack will be attacks from the right, the key man is the opposite Nishida. In the Nations League, he struggled with the French block and was unable to perform as well as he wanted, but if he can fix that and perform at his best, he should be a threat to France. He is 20cm taller than the opposing opposite Patry, but I hope he can overcome that and lead the team to victory.
Of course, his bullet serve is also essential to Ryujin Nippon's victory. I hope he can hit at least three aces, and ideally six!
Anyway, I want you to go wild with all your gorilla power, haha.
summary
I have briefly summarized the strategy for Japan to defeat France.
Even if everything I wrote here goes well, it's no exaggeration to say that France is such a strong team that it's only then that we can have a good match. In fact, Japan has lost seven official matches in a row to France.
However, in fact, the two teams have played against each other three times in official matches since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, but during that time, the two teams have never played against each other with their full members, and Japan did not play with their full members in all matches. In other words, what I want to say is that you never know what will happen until you play the match.
It's true that France is the strongest team, but there is certainly hope, and there is definitely an atmosphere that Japan can do it, and it feels like a winning mentality is gradually being cultivated within the team.
The match,
September 5th (Monday) 21:00 local time
(From 4:00am Japan time)
is!
You can watch it live on Volleyball World TV or Paravi!!
Let's beat France and advance to the top 8!
Good luck Ryujin Nippon!!!
Photo: FIVB
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