Japan falls to Serbia in a tough five-set thriller – Volleyball News
Pool A teams of the 2012 FIVB World League, Japan and Serbia, clashed in the last match of third leg on Sunday.
The Yantarny Sports Hall in Kaliningrad, Russia hosted the match, while 1,250 volleyball enthusiasts were in presence. After many ups and downs, Serbia settled for 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10) victory and forced Japan to stay winless after nine matches. Victory allowed Serbia to take second position in the group. Japanese squad, on the other hand, firmly held the bottom slot after making another unsuccessful attempt. Japan is constantly staying in cold waters and has not captured any match in the competition.
Opening set of the match was the longest one, which continued for almost 28 minutes and put the skills of both teams to a test. Score soared up with incredibly close gaps, while scoreboard experienced a lot of variations throughout the set. Eventually, Japan hit the mark and earned two-point advantage to close first set at 25-23.
Serbian coach used the substitute players in the second set. The formula worked and Serbs went up at the first technical timeout. Thereafter, luck totally favoured Serbia, while Japan suffered too many slip-ups. It seemed as if the ball just needed a poke by the Serbian players and it would touch the ground. Serbia rallied from 8-4 to 12-4 and maintained its supremacy until the end. Japan lost second set 19-25 and the game score tied at 1-1.
The point-to-point battle continued in third set and Japan regained better status. With the help of convincing attacks from Ageba Yuya, Japan managed to finish third set with identical score of 25-19.
Interestingly enough, Serbia responded in the same tone and held off Japan for another 25-19 win in fourth set.
After the dead-lock of 2-2, the spectators were on the tip of their toes to witness the winner of the match. Japanese team committed few mistakes in the decisive set, which enabled Serbia to stamp 15-10 on board. Serbs achieved the match points and marched away with 3-2 victory.
Serbia coach Igor Kolakovic revealed that his team did not catch a good start in the match but successfully covered its flaws later on. He seemed satisfied with the way his team fought a great volleyball scrimmage with Japan.
In this connection, Japanese head coach Tatsuya Ueta said, "We tried to use different methods at the match, but we lost."
Furthermore, the captain Japanese team Daisuke Usami shared his views in the following manner. He stated, "It was a tough and interesting game, but Serbia won. We were strong defending, but Serbia managed to gain a victory."
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