Following the Chinese women's volleyball team announced the list of "12+1" players for the Paris Olympics, the Japanese team, as an old Asian rival, was also announced by coach Masayoshi Manabe.
Judging from the list, the 13 members of the Japanese team are still relatively reasonable, all the players have made achievements in the World League, and the substitute players such as Aya Watanabe and Ai Kurogo, who did not play, were abandoned by Masayoshi Manabe. What makes fans a little puzzled should be that the Japanese women's volleyball team brought 3 free men, namely Manami Kojima, Emi Fukuru and Akane Yamagishi.
Manami Kojima and Emi Fukuru are on the 12-man roster, while Akane Yamagishi is a substitute player who can only be replaced if 12 are injured. The reason why 3 liberos were chosen, the Japanese women's volleyball team probably still wants to maximize its defensive and counterattack advantages. During the World League finals, the Japanese team used the double libero, Manami Kojima and Emi Fukuru, who took turns to play and left a deep impression on everyone.
In addition to wanting to maximize their defensive advantages, it is also related to the fact that they have 2 jack-of-all-trades players on the team. Although the mixed-race secondary attack Miyabe Lanli signed up for the secondary attack position, she used to play a side attack in the national team, and if there is a problem with the side attack, she can also be on top immediately; Yukiko Wada has both the main attack and the reception, playing the United States as the main attacker in the last World League, and playing Brazil as the receiver in the current World League, both of which have achieved good results.
The main lineup of the Japanese women's volleyball team should still be the same as the World League Finals, with the main attack on Sarina Koga and Shinyu Ishikawa, the secondary attack on Yamada 200ka and Araki Sayaka, the response to Lin Qina, the second setter Iwasaki Mitsuyomi and the double libero Kojima Manami and Fukuru Emi. As for the Olympic goal, Masayoshi Manabe has already put forward the wish of "wanting to stand on the podium". In terms of grouping, Japan are in Group B and they have no big problems qualifying from the group.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the Japanese women's volleyball team created the worst record and failed to qualify for the group stage. In this Paris Olympics, the Japanese women's volleyball team is in the same group as Brazil, Poland and Kenya. With the top two in the group and the two best finishes in third place, Japan will not have much pressure to qualify from the group, after all, Kenya are weak, Brazil is on par with them, and it is very likely that they will play five games, and even if they cannot finish in the top two of the group, they will have a good chance of finishing third in the best place to qualify for the quarterfinals.
After entering the quarterfinals, whether they can break into the semifinals or even reach the podium depends on the opponents in the knockout round. The Japanese are now more afraid of teams like Poland who have good blocking, strong attacking power and can eat hard in height, and they will not be able to show their defensive advantages against such teams, but they will play more easily against teams of their type.
Japan Women's Volleyball Olympic Squad Roster:
边攻 - Hayashi Kotona, Koyo Rina Ko, Ishikawa Shinsuke, Inoue Risa and Wada Yukiko;
Secondary attack - Yamada 200ka, Miyabe Blue Pear, Araki Sayaka;
Second Setter - Mitsuyomi Iwasaki, Nanami Sekina;
Free People - Konami Kosaki, Keimi Fukudome.
Substitute - Akane Yamagishi (free man).