Dead or alive, you decide! Chinese Taipei stuck at the bottom of FIVB Grand Prix 2010
The toppers of any sport catch flashy news every day but sometimes teams at the lower end accidently become a part of the gossip. This holds true for the Chinese Taipei’s women’s volleyball team, which is one of 12 contestants of the FIVB Grand Prix Championship 2010.
The championship has covered two stages so far and each team has played its 6 preliminary round matches. In last two weeks, the standings went through drastic changes on account of win/loss ratio of teams. Chinese Taipei was totally out of luck and lost all their games of 1st and 2nd round. Willy nilly, they voluntarily helped other teams earn points and go higher in the rankings.
1st Preliminary round (6-8 August 2010)
In the first preliminary round, Chinese Taipei was placed in Group A along with top teams of the championship including defending champion Brazil. They played their first match with Brazil on the opening day of FIVB Grand Prix 2010. It was a one-sided match as Brazil had no difficulty to lay them off. Chinese Taipei’s young players tried to raise heads in the second set but the defending champion erased their chances of winning the set. Brazil won the match in three straight sets, posting 25-15, 25-19, and 25-12.
In the second turn, Italy was up to give them a nasty beat. The Italians crushed the Chinese Taipei by sending a 3-0 victory. The first set was totally dominated by Italy but in the final two sets Chinese Taipei did create a little buzz. They delivered their level’s best but it was not enough to overcome the powerful Italian team, which had many experienced players. Chinese Taipei was knocked off after receiving 25-15, 25-20, and 25-19 defeat in three respective sets.
The run of defeats didn’t stop there, rather it continued while Japan dismissed the Chinese Taipei repeating the same three sets victory like previous two games. Japan posted 25-16, 25-16, and 25-16 win over them.
It was the story of 1st round where Chinese Taipei bore complete loss of three games.
2nd Preliminary round (13-15 August 2010)
The struggling team of Chinese Taipei entered the second round with a hope to change their destiny by any means. Japan, Poland and Germany joined them in Group F.
The combat started on 13th August and they played their first match of second round with Poland. The scene quite resembled to the opening match of 1st round where Brazil stood tall across the net. The only change they experienced was second best team of Grand Prix 2010 in front of them. Poland thrashed the Chinese Taipei’s team with spear-headed spikes and heavily influenced them with their game tactics. A considerable difference of points in all three sets declared Poland as the victorious team. They posted 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, and 25-15) win over Chinese Taipei.
The Chinese Taipei saw new rivals in the court the next day. The Germans embarked the chaos on Chinese Taipei. The results were predictable. Once again they failed to create any impression in the game and lost the game in plain three sets 25-19, 25-14, and 25-19.
The final encounter brought Japan and Chinese Taipei together. Japan had already won a match against Chinese Taipei in the first phase of the game. So they had the competitive edge over C.T. The first set opened with strong attack from both sides. Team C.T. also put effort in the game and fought back. They hit back some nice shot and surprised the Japanese team. Somehow Japanese dismissed the C.T. in a short time and claimed a 3-0 victory.
The C.T. is currently placed at the bottom due to their flop performance. It was certainly embarrassing to lose all their matches but they should be happy about the fact that they learned a lot from the experienced teams of the world.
Tags: