The last day of the 1st group stage Volleyball Nations League 2022 ended with shocking results in the group in Brazil. Especially, all three “main characters” are Asian representatives.
The first shock came from the encounter between the host – the defending champion of Brazil and the team being the weakest rated tournament – China. China is the replacement of VNL 2022 instead of Russia after the country is banned from participating.
From the beginning of the tournament until now, China also lost. They also lost to two Asian representatives, Iran and Japan, so not many people could think of a scenario other than the home team will crush the visitors.
However, the most “crazy” result took place when China won 3-0 to Brazil convincingly. If the boys of the country billion people perform an impressive and effective gameplay, the Brazilian host is the opposite.
Despite being more appreciated, Brazil performed a weak play, especially the two masters with many situations for catching step 1 and ineffective attacks. The result of the loser made the CTD crowded with fans falling in silence and stunning.
Meanwhile, the competition between Japan and Iran is extremely attractive when both are the “enemy feet”, always bringing each other to 5 checks with the victory divided equally to both sides.
However, everything was very unexpected when Japan was completely overwhelming. Nishida, Yuki Ishikawa or Takahashi Ran played very well against the weak resistance from Iran.
In this match, Japanese balls scored a lot of live points while Iran had a weak competition day. The victory helped Japan repay the debt at the final of the athletes at home at the end of last year.
After this series, the men's volleyball teams will have a week of rest to give to the female tournament before returning.