On the second day of the second week of the Nations League, the Japan men's volleyball team played against Cuba and won 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-21).
First set starting lineup
Japan
OH: Ai Takahashi, Ishikawa
MB: Onodera, Yamauchi
OP: Nishida
S: Sekita
L: Yamamoto
Cuba
OH: Lopez, Yant
MB: Masso, Concepcion
OP: Elera
S: Taboada
L: Garcia
*Positions: OH = outside hitter, MB = middle blocker, OP = opposite, S = setter, L = libero
The stats for this match areHere
Match Report
The first set started with an attack from OH Takahashi Ai, and with Cuba's mistakes, Japan got off to a good start with a score of 4-0. After that, Cuba tied the score at 9-9 with a service ace from OH Yant and a spike from OH Lopez, but Japan came back in front with a 14-11 score thanks to spikes from OP Nishida. From there, Japan continued to score points, mainly from OP Nishida, and finally, with a spike from OH Takahashi Ai, Japan took the set 25-22.
In the second set, MB Yamauchi scored one after another with blocks and quicks from the beginning, and Japan took a 6-3 lead. After that, Japan extended its lead to 17-11 with attacks centered on the middle from stable serve reception, and in the final stages, OH Takahashi Ai's pipe attacks led to a break of 22-14. In the end, MB Concepcion's attack was a mistake, and Japan won this set 25-16.
In the third set, Cuba took a 4-6 lead after getting blocks and aces off OH Lopez's serves. However, Cuba made a series of mistakes, and Japan managed to turn the game around to 13-12. Then, MB Onodera's block and OH Takahashi Ai's spike widened the gap to 17-14. Finally, OH Lopez's attack led to an error, and Japan won the set 25-21, defeating Cuba 3-0.
With this, Japan has maintained its provisional first place position in the VNL qualifying round with a total of 6 wins and 18 points from 6 matches. The top 7 teams, excluding the host country Poland, will advance to the final round.
Japan will next face Brazil on 22 June at 8:00pm Japan time.
personal MVP
Japan: OH Ai Takahashi
14 points (including 1 block), attack effectiveness rate 58%, serve reception success rate 50%
He scored the team's highest 14 points with his specialty pipe attacks, and supported setter Sekita's game-making centered on the middle with his stable serve reception. He also showed a big play in the third set with an underhand fake set, which really got the crowd excited. After the match, I told him, "Today, you scored the team's highest 14 points..." and he was surprised and said, "Seriously?!" with his eyes wide open. He really is a big star (laughs).
Runner-up: MB Akira Yamauchi (9 points (1 block), attack efficiency rate 731 TP 3 T)
Cuba: OH Miguel Lopez
10 points (1 serve, 1 block), attack effectiveness rate 40%, serve reception success rate 33%
Despite being only 189cm tall, he had great jumping ability and powerful spikes that gave Japan a hard time. However, he struggled to serve on the day, and was not much of a threat to Japan in that respect.
Thoughts etc.
Japan was strong again today.
Today's game in particular was one in which we could say we won thanks to our defense. We had very strong offensive power from the center area, such as the middle and the pipes, based on stable serve reception, and our strong floor defense forced the opponent to make mistakes in their attacks.
The center of the team was the aforementioned Ai Takahashi. Defensively, he was the best on the team in both serve reception and digging, and offensively, he had the most points on the team with 14. His pipe attacks in particular were close to 1001 TP3T. Libero Yamamoto also contributed as usual on defense, and on offense, Yamauchi scored 8 points (731 TP3T success rate) and Onodera scored 7 points (100% success rate), and both middle players were outstanding.
As a result, Ishikawa, who had been the best scorer in most games up until that point, was unusually low-key with only five points, but it is truly amazing that Ishikawa was able to score this many points despite being so modest.
However, I was concerned about Nishida's tough numbers, conceding 9 points out of 9 attacking points. In contrast to yesterday's match against Canada, Nishida scored one after another with fast-paced spikes in the first set, but lost momentum from the second set. He was the only one who was specially cheered on by the crowd, calling out "Nishida," so I hope he does his best!
Cuba was a waste, to say the least. It's true that Japan's defense was good, but they made a lot of serving errors. Japan had 12 serving errors, while Cuba had 21. In fact, they had three service aces, so if they had just been on the court, who knows what the game would have been like. But I guess that's part of skill. I also wanted to see more of Ishikawa and his Milan teammate Melgarejo's play...
So, as expected, the Japanese national team was able to beat Cuba relatively easily. Their next opponent is the final boss, Brazil. It seems they haven't won an official match in over 20 years, so isn't it about time they won?
However, since Japan has been playing with the so-called A-men for the last two games, I expect that they will completely change their lineup for the match against Brazil. They have been able to win against lower-ranked opponents and have often rested their main players against higher-ranked opponents. But if that happens, I'm sure Miyaura will be invincible against Brazil (laughs).
Anyway, do your best tomorrow, Ryujin Nippon!!
VNL Week 2 France Tournament Information
Information about the opponents for Week 2 is summarized in the article or video below.
How to watch Nations League 2023
All Japan matches in the Nations League 2023 will be broadcast live on BS-TBS,U-NEXTandVolley TVBut it's being broadcast live.
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Photo: FIVB
Photo book "CATCH ××× DREAM" featuring Ryujin Nippon's three players Ishikawa, Takahashi, and Nishida will be released on June 5th! ↓
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