VOLLEYBALL

Japan secures Olympic volleyball berth

Sunday 08th June, 06:00 AM JST

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14 Comments

Bovinus at 11:01 PM JST - 7th June

Why does each player have to give every other player in the team 'five' after they win every single point? It's so excessive and retarded, and the reason why vollyball is ranked down the bottom of my list of interesting sports, along with synchronised swimming and horse racing.
Sarge at 11:21 PM JST - 7th June

Bovinus - Hey, when every point counts, like in this match, every point gets a fiver!
some14some at 11:34 PM JST - 7th June

I congratulate j-team but media hype will spoil my Sunday.
rjd_jr at 06:05 AM JST - 8th June

Who cares, no Miwa Asao means no interest from me.
USNinJapan2 at 08:12 AM JST - 8th June

I was cheering for these guys but boy are they choke artists, particularly the captain Ogura. I watched in disbelief as they gave away numerous leads and all but let the Argentinians have the last couple of points to win the 5th set. They even allowed them to reach matchpoint first after being down by five points. You could see it in their faces near the end, they were getting scared that they were going to blow it and miss their much coveted Olympic ticket. Hope they learn to play better under pressure in Beijing...
Crucifier99 at 10:51 AM JST - 8th June

The next difficult step for Japan is getting the Olympic volleyball played here in Japan citing the pollution in China ofcourse they will foot all the bills of the competing teams too bad they will be facing a formidable IOC and not that pet organisation called FIVB that is bankrolled by japan. The japanese coach is aiming for a medal in beijing, the euphoria of qualifying will die down but the hype of the naive J-media will only escalate and we will be reminded often that they are real medal hopefuls.
northlondon at 01:05 PM JST - 8th June

This is a complete farce and so obviously fixed for Japanese volleyball. First we get the Japanese womens team with a qualifying tournament here in Japan. And now the mens team get their free pass here as well. Let me ask this question, just why are the likes of Italy, Argentina and Algeria playing an Olympic qualifying tournament alongside the Asian teams in an 'Asian' qualifier ? And just why do the other Asian teams such as South Korea and Thailand roll over everytime and let these tournaments be hosted in Japan ? This whole thing stinks badly.
saintseiya at 01:54 PM JST - 8th June

Northlondon

You have a point, but how was it in the last 10000years of Olympic qualifying?? The asian teams had to travel the entire world, so no it's reverse. That's all.

Obviously did the japanese have a big advantage to play at home, and shows that Italy are the real men.
pathat at 04:03 PM JST - 8th June

Why does each player have to give every other player in the team 'five' after they win every single point?

All the "high touch" gets ridiculous. There is way too much lovin` going on.

This is a complete farce and so obviously fixed for Japanese volleyball.

So true.
Taka313 at 05:20 PM JST - 8th June

USN, While I'm won't go so far as to call the J-team "choke artists," they do seem to get rattled pretty easily and I don't think they play well from behind. Also, from the two matches I watched, they seemed to be a one-trick pony. Kochikawa (#17) is a rock star but he seems to be their only really dominant player, in my opinion.

Taka
USNinJapan2 at 07:12 PM JST - 8th June

Correction, the captain's name is Ogino, not Ogura as I posted above. Sorry...
Sarge at 09:21 PM JST - 8th June

Japan just whipped Algeria 3-0.
Crucifier99 at 09:52 PM JST - 8th June

The World cup,world championship and some other funny tourneys created by the joke called FIVB always take place here in Japan. Well the reason everything is always held here in Japan because Japan foots the entire bill of the competing teams. the competing teams and FIVB don't mind coming here to play as long as they are not spending.
smithinjapan at 02:44 AM JST - 9th June

I was mildly impressed with the Japanese men this time around, but more disgusted with the Argentinians; the latter may as well have just handed Japan the game on a platter.

Anyway, while I'm happy for the Japanese men's team, I have no doubt that they are so pleased with themselves for even qualifying that we'll see nothing positive in the actual Olympics.