In the sixth match of the second half of the Italian men's volleyball league Serie A, Milan, where Ishikawa Yuki plays and is in seventh place in the league, played against league leaders Perugia at home on Saturday, January 28th (local time) and lost 0-3 (19-25, 23-25, 21-25).
Ishikawa Yuki started in this match but only managed to score five goals.
First set starting lineup
Milan
OH: Melgarejo (Cuba), Ishikawa
MB: Vitelli (Italy), Rosell (Argentina)
OP: Patry (France)
S: Porro (Italy)
L: Pesaresi (Italy)
Perugia
OH: Leon (Poland), Plotnicki (Ukraine)
MB: Sole (Argentina), Filavio (Brazil)
OP: Herrera (Cuba)
S: Giannelli (Italy)
L: Coraci (Italy)
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
Milan's home game that day was played at the Mediolanum Forum, the largest indoor arena in Italy, rather than at Allianz Cloud, where they usually play.
A crowd of 8,035, the fourth-highest in Italian League history, watched the match.
In the first set, Milano took the lead with a block by OH Ishikawa, but from there it became a close game with both teams trying to get side outs.
Milan's OH Melgarejo and Perugia's OP Herrera scored points to tie the game at 13-13.
From there, S. Giannelli made a brilliant two-attack and then blocked OH Melgarejo to put Perugia ahead in the midfield at 13-16.
Furthermore, Perugia widened the gap to 15-22 with a back attack from OH Leon and a back attack from S. Giannelli, and finally OH Leon scored a sharp left spike to give Perugia the lead in the set, 19-25.
In the early stages of the second set, OP Patry blocked OH Leon to take a two-point lead at 4-2, and then continued to maintain the lead with OP Patry's spikes and other plays, leading to 11-9 until the middle of the set.
However, OP Patri was caught by MB Sole's blocks consecutively, allowing Perugia to take the lead at 11-12, and further mistakes by Milan and attacks by OH Leon allowed Perugia to widen the gap to 16-19 as the game drew to a close.
Milan then closed the gap to just one point at 22-23 with blocks from OP Lawrence (Puerto Rico) and MB Rosell, who came on as substitutes, but in the end, OH Leon and OP Herrera scored spikes from the side-out, and Perugia took the set 23-25.
In the third set, the early stages were once again closely fought, but while Perugia got side-outs with spikes from OH Plotnicki and others, Milan continued to score points due to the opponent's serve errors, and advanced to 7-7.
From here, OP Herrera scored points with a block and serve to put Perugia ahead 8-11, and while Milan struggled to get side outs, OH Plotnicki and MB Flavio scored spikes and Perugia broke the lead, widening the gap to 12-19.
Towards the end of the match, Milan's MB Rosell's spikes and powerful serves from substitute OH Ebadipour led to Perugia making several attacking mistakes, narrowing the gap to three points at 21-24.However, OH Ebadipour's final serve also went wrong, and Perugia comfortably won the set 21-25 to beat Milan 0-3.
MVP: OH Wilfredo Leon (15 points (including 1 block), attack success rate 501 TP 3 T)
Ishikawa Yuki scored 5 points (2 of which were blocks), with an attack success rate of 201 TP3T and a serve receive success rate of 531 TP3T, so his defense was stable, but he did not perform well on the offensive side.
Milano now sits in 8th place with a record of 8 wins, 9 losses and 23 points.
The next match will be at home against 10th-placed Padova, where Takahashi Ai plays, on Saturday, February 5th at 17:00 local time (1:00 the next day Japan time).
The report for the first half is here:
Thoughts etc.
Looking at the 8,000 people packed into the Mediolanum Forum, I wish I had gone to the venue, but if I went to Italy every week I would go bankrupt, so I'll just go with this (laughs).
However, when listening to the audio alone, the voices of the Perugia fans are so loud that it's hard to tell which team is at home (laughs).
The booing was also louder when Milan served.
Well, in the beginning of each set, we were competitive and it was interesting, but then we fell behind in the middle and were allowed to keep going, and it seemed like all three sets ended in the same way until the end.
Also, in the early stages of the match, Perugia was mainly getting side outs with their own attacks, while Milan scored many points due to Perugia's serve errors, and from the middle stages onwards, once Perugia's serves started to come in, Milan fell behind in points.
Milan was able to break down Perugia with their serves, but it was very tough for them as Perugia's powerful side attackers were able to score with repeated spikes even on high balls, which are difficult to score as long as they didn't concede any direct points on their serves.
Perugia's attackers are flashy, and S. Giannelli will spike the ball whenever he gets the chance (even back attacks! (lol)), so attention tends to be focused on their offensive power, but they have also conceded few direct points on serve receives (zero in this game) and their transitions are thorough, so their strong defensive ability is also a major factor behind their legendary unbeaten streak this season.
In fact, this defensive ability may be the essence of Perugia's strength.
Also, Ishikawa had a tough time in this match.
Their defense was stable and they did well with blocks, scoring two goals, but their attacking efforts were limited to just three goals, a success rate of 20%.
Furthermore, we conceded six goals in attack, which resulted in a negative attack effectiveness rate.
It's rare for Ishikawa to concede more attacks than he scores, or at least I can't remember it happening.
At this rate, I thought it might have been a good idea to substitute Ishikawa with OH Ebadipour, but coach Piazza didn't change Ishikawa.
Perhaps this is a reflection of the manager's trust and expectations for Ishikawa.
In any case, they were noticeably conceding goals because of their spikes in the match against Verona, so I hope they can fix that quickly and get back to their original performance.
However, one good thing about Milan was that MB Rosell was consistently scoring in this match as well, which made me very happy!
Perugia's S. Giannelli has used MB Flavio from up the attack line or even from under the set, so I would like to see S. Porro and MB Rosell also try out some unusual quick attacks in the same way (lol).
Next week will be the second half of the Japanese showdown!
I hope both teams do their best, but personally I'd like to see Padua get revenge after losing to them in the first half (laughs).
Anyway, I hope to see a full-power clash without any injuries on either side!!!
Photo: PowervolleyMilano
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