Osaka (Japan)

The 2007 World Cup Organizers divided the teams into two groups. The first one is playing in Osaka, the second one in Sendai.

Now, I try to qualify the twelve teams in three different levels.

Among Group A, Italy is the only one in the first level, Serbia and Japan are in the second rank and Dominican Republic, Korea and Thailand in the last.

Group B has Brazil and USA on top, Cuba and Poland second ranked, Peru and Kenya at the bottom.

Nevertheless, I can’t say that the three levels of one group exactly correspond to those in the other group.
I considered Cuba and Poland as second level teams, but this rank in Group B is a little better than corresponding level in Group A. The Perdomo’s (CUB) and Bonitta’s (POL) squads are stronger than Japan and perhaps, slightly better than Serbia (who missed two important players since 2007 European Championship).

If anybody disagrees with this distribution, please send a message to the Blog mail, writing your personal ranking.

Today, I’ll focus on Italy-Serbia match, because this was by far the most important match of Group A.

For the Italian team this was the first tough test after three “easy” matches (DOM - THA – KOR).
Actually, no match has to be considered “easy”, but a resolute group has to recognize the real opponents value and DOM, THA and KOR aren’t outstanding team!
The match was the perfect example of “up and down game”. Both teams seemed to be provided of an ON and OFF switch out of any modulator.

Take a look at Serbian Stats and remember that Terzic’s team won the first and third games (in bold):

	Attack	Reception
1 set:	45%	67%
2 set :	11%	48%
3 set :	56%	50%
4 set :	28%	39%
5 set:	23%	33%

Examining these numbers, it’s so evident that Nikolic and her team mates didn’t play at all in the second, fourth and fifth set.

Italian stats are less clear (again in bold the won sets)

	Attack	Reception
1 set:	44%	41%
2 set :	48%	46%
3 set :	30%	50%
4 set :	38%	42%
5 set:	38%	12%

The difference among the sets is smaller but Barbolini’s players lost the opening frame due to 9 errors and won the fourth because of 12 Serbian mistakes.

The crucial game (the fifth) was marked by five Italian blocks that, from the very beginning, cut out the opponent’s hopes. The squads switched court when Italy was leading 8 – 3 and soon the match finished (15 – 7).

Soon after the match’s end Barbolini said that the Italian players seemed sleepy and they needed too much time to turn on.
Then he added: “The next time we’ll play a match at 12.30, we’ll wake up earlier than 7.30 as we did this morning.”

Why Italy won: I answered this above.

Why Korea won: Beato Miguel Cruz (DOM Coach) started the match switching the line up positions: he employed the spiker Cabral, as a middle blocker. Seven years ago the Caribbean player was a middle blocker but, since then, she has never played in this position again. The Dominican team has to risk the hurried shift to exploit the Arias’s attack powerful (she is just recovering an Achilles’ heel injury). On the other side, for the first time in this 2007 World Cup, Korean team played supported by a strong team spirit. In a very balanced game this was the crucial difference.

Why Japan won:  Once more Japan confirms to be the strongest women team in Asia (only Chinese squad is comparable or slight better). When Japanese players face similar-sized athletes, they take advantage of their better technical skills. The match never remains uncertain for long, and soon the Nippon fans can celebrate the final victory.


Bye bye andrea zorzi