On Sunday, January 19th, local time, the Italian Superlegaga's second half match between Milan and Piacenza took place, with Milan coming from behind to win 3-2 (24-26, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-9). And the MVP was selected as Tatsunori Otsuka, an outside hitter for the Japanese national team who is currently a member of Milan. This was Otsuka's first MVP award since moving to Italy.
In the match, Piacenza, with OP Romano's spikes and serves scoring, took the first two sets in a row and put themselves in a position to win.
After that, OH Otsuka took the place of the struggling OH Kaziyski in the third set, and led the team on both offense and defense, winning the third and fourth sets in a row, making the match go to full sets.
The momentum increased in the fifth set, and from the beginning, OH Otsuka scored one attack after another, and Milan continued to take the lead as the match progressed. Finally, Otsuka scored his fifth spike of the set to take the set, and Milan achieved a major comeback victory with a score of 3-2.
Otsuka scored 11 points in this match, tied for third on the team, but was selected as the MVP as he was the key player in the comeback victory.
He has played many defensive roles in the substitute role up to this point, and has already demonstrated high defensive performance in practice. However, in this match, he also showed his true potential on the offensive side, recording high numbers of 631 TP3T (and zero goals conceded).
In this match in particular, his spikes down the lines (straights) stood out, and the spike that earned him the match point in the fifth set was a superb line shot with great precision.
Although he didn't have any aces, he contributed to the break by breaking his opponents down many times with his serves.
Also, when Otsuka entered the court, the whole team seemed to be filled with energy and the performance of the whole team improved significantly. I thought again that this player has the power to change such a team.
He struggled with injuries in the first half of the season and had a hard time playing as he wanted, but he finally showed the sharpness and power he had been hoping for, and I think he showed the kind of play we were all looking forward to.
I knew he was a player who could perform well, but I had felt that he was lacking, especially on the offensive side. He's finally here. This is it, this is the kind of player I wanted to see.
I hope he will continue to work hard with the determination to take the starting position from the legendary Kaziyski. I'm sure Otsuka can do it. He can do even more.
I hope that together with the Rakunan quartet duo, who also won their first MVP awards, they will liven up the second half of the Italian league season.
Milan-Piacenza
3-2 (24-26, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-9)
Detailed match stats
https://www.legavolley.it/match/38301
Photo: legavolley.it
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