Brazil Upsets Team USA, Takes WGCC Silver. Day 5 Recap (Full Videos)

  0 Liam Smith | September 10th, 2017 | Asian Volleyball, Brazilian Volleyball, European volleyball, International Volleyball, News, NORCECA volleyball, South American Volleyball, U.S. Women's Volleyball

2017 WORLD GRAND CHAMPIONS CUP – WOMEN’S

Team USA was the clear favorite for the silver medal. However, after strong showings against Brazil in the USAV Cup, they suffered an upset at the hands of the South American Squad. As the match ended up giving Brazil and USA the same win-loss card, the South Americans edged the NORCECA side in points to take the silver medal. The USA will have to contempt itself with the bronze medal. Below, you’ll find updated pools, FIVB recaps, and videos of the day’s action.

Matches Pts Sets Points
Rank Team W L W L Ratio W L Ratio
1  China 5 0 14 15 4 3.750 454 343 1.324
2  Brazil 3 2 11 13 7 1.857 438 405 1.081
3  United States 3 2 7 10 10 1.000 431 434 0.993
4  Russia 2 3 7 9 10 0.900 411 427 0.963
5  Japan 2 3 6 10 11 0.909 462 471 0.981
6  South Korea 0 5 0 0 15 0.000 260 376 0.691

Team USA x Brazil

Gabriela Guimarães and Tandara Caixeta scored 16 points apiece to boost Brazil’s campaign to finish with a silver medal, following their 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-19) win over USA. Gabi and Tandara played well in all skill categories and combined for 26 attacks, three blocks and three aces. Natalia Pereira added more support on offence with 11 points, while Ana Carolina Da Silva took care of their defense with four blocks. Jordan Larson and Andrea Drews scored 12 points each for USA.

Gabi and Drews had a scoring showdown, leading their sides to a tight first set encounter. The USA turnovers gave Brazil the chance to finish the set at 25-20. USA led 22-20 in the second set, but Brazil scored four straight points that snatched the lead, then Natalia buried a strong spike to close the second set at 25-23. USA ran out of steam, while Brazil got better breaks that powered them to win in straight sets.

Here are the post match reactions:

Brazilian coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes: I feel very proud of my team. Today’s win was a very important one. Our opponents play a very high level of volleyball, which makes this win more important. When we play the USA, we learn many things – the way to play and to never lose concentration. Today, we never lost concentration and we functioned well on all aspects. The FIVB World Championship will be a very high level global competition where you have to play 11 matches in 15 days against the best teams in the world. It’s very high level technically and it will be like a marathon physically. All countries want to win the title. Our team must be better in all aspects than we are now and our skills must be more mature. Like the World Cup, it’s a very important competition.

Brazilian captain Natalia Pereira: Everyone in our team knows we must concentrate when we play USA. We had a good start today and so we were able to get a result. I want to praise my own team for the win and getting three points. It’s great to end this competition on a good note. We still have points to improve but still it’s good to end the year this way. In this tournament, there were some strong opponents. We knew it would be difficult but we could win, so I’m very happy.

Brazilian player Gabriela Guimaraes: I’m really happy to win today. We played with intelligence and when we play against USA, it’s always tough. We didn’t expect to win 3-0 as we had difficult games against Japan and China, but we managed to win well today. When we play against the United States, we have to maintain a high level and play with intelligence, as well as minimizing errors. We also can’t afford to waver up and down; we must be consistently good.

USA coach Karch Kiraly: One good thing about sport is it teaches us about ourselves and teaches us about life. Every volleyball game has celebration and sorrow and joy and disappointment. We had more disappointment and sorrow today, but more important than that is how we respond, and we’ll use this to get better. Congratulations to Brazil for playing a nice tournament here. The World Championship is in Japan, which always has great organisation, like this week, so it should be a wonderful tournament. It has all the best teams in it and is always a tremendous test of every team, so we look forward to being tested.

USA captain Carli Lloyd: This tournament has been a great opportunity for us and we had to battle for some wins over the last few days. We got better at some things, so this loss is really disappointing. It wasn’t really a great representation of what we are capable of. We’ll make some improvements going into next summer. This has been a wonderful tournament and Japan has been an amazing host.

USA player Jordan Larson: I think in the whole tournament we did a nice job. We have some new players so we’re just working out a lot of things. Some of us took a lot of the summer off, so rhythm-wise we’re catching up. I’m proud of our team for staying in some of these matches and fighting. Today was disappointing and we made some mistakes toward the end, but overall I’m happy with our team and I’ll be excited to get back next summer and do it all over again.

China x Japan

Zhu Ting commanded China’s 3-1 (25-22, 26-24, 25-18, 25-16) win over hosts Japan to complete their title sweep. Zhu was offence-driven against Japan as scored 25 solid attacks and an ace for China. The rest of China’s starting unit scored points, with four other players scoring in double-figures – Zhang Changning (16), Yuan Xinyue (15), Yan Ni (12) and Zeng Chunlei (12). Japan also made a solid scoring effort led by Risa Shinnabe and Rika Nomoto, who scored 17 points each. However, China played solidly at the net with 15 stuff blocks.

China clinched their second title at the World Grand Champions Cup. China last climbed the top podium when they won all five matches in 2001. They joined Brazil as the only reigning Olympic champions to win the World Grand Champions Cup.

Japan’s defense was unyielding against China, which led to a tight first set. However, Zhu Ting’s three strong spikes closed the set after the deadlock of 22-all. Japan gave another great fight in the next set and were rewarded with a win as Nomoto’s service game displaced their rivals’ defence. Zhu found the seams on the Japanese defence and picked on this deficiency to claim the next two sets for the title victory.

Here are the post match reactions:

Chinese coach An Jiajie: We are very happy to be the champions and I want to express my deep gratitude to my players and coaches. There is still room for improvement in critical areas and that will be our next challenge. It’s the first year of the new Olympic cycle, so this is an important year for us.

Chinese captain Zhu Ting: Japan fought really hard but our blocking was very good and our passing was good. I want to thank Japan for playing such a good game as it meant we were able to put on a good performance ourselves. I think Japan is getting better and better. I’d like to thank our group of coaches and my team-mates. Volleyball is a team sport and it was, thanks to other people that we were able to achieve such results.

Chinese player Ding Xia: I think we did well in our first four matches but today Japan played at a high level and put pressure on us. But we were able to execute our game plan and were able to win, so I’m happy about that. I was impressed by Japan’s tenacity and that’s something I’d like to take with me.

Japanese coach Kumi Nakada: Today, we sometimes lost our positivity but we continued to fight to the end. China have height and really no weak points, but we have to find a way to compete against that. I think we achieved our targets for this year, more or less, but it’s obvious we have many challenges, so we have to analyse these well in order to prepare for next year. In terms of results, we didn’t do so well, but we played strong countries and sometimes we were able to take sets, which should help with the confidence of our players. Overall this competition was a very good experience for our players.

Japanese captain Nana Iwasaka: I started in today’s game but couldn’t produce good results. It was partly due to a lack of technique. Of course, we must defend against Zhu Ting, but we needed to defend against their other players who can all score. We should have been better to stop them with better blocking. Overall, as captain I feel I didn’t lead the team as I should have done, so that disappoints me.

Japanese player Erika Araki: Today against China, we were able to score well in some instances but they came back at us with strong spikes, push shots and good blocking. As they started to dominate, they were able to score more easily and we had fewer options in the end. It really doesn’t matter who we play, we should be able to determine the outcome as a team. We have done that to some extent as a team, so it gives us something to work from. But as a team we have a lot of room for improvement.

Japanese player Miya Sato: Today, we really felt the strength of China, but really we were the reason why we lost the match. If you fail to do what you should do, it becomes really difficult to win. We wanted to increase the number of back row attacks in this game but in the first part of the game, we saw they could stop them too easily. Appearing on a global stage like this, I can see I need to acquire better techniques and improve mentally as well.

Russia x Korea

Nataliya Goncharova led Russia in scoring to dominate Korea 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-21). Goncharova registered 11 attacks and four attacks, then Kseniia Parubets added 11 markers coming off the bench in the second set. Lee Jaeyong made 14 points on a losing effort. The Russian outscored Korea in attacks 41-35 and in blocks 14-3.

Russia built a huge lead at the start of the match. The Koreans increased their tempo and succeeded to disrupt the Russian defence, but the Europeans adjusted to secure the first set. Russia asserted their dominance on Korea and did not allow any significant runs that secured the next two sets to seal match victory.

Here are the post match reactions:

Russian coach Vladimir Kuziutkin: In Japan, we’ve been able to measure ourselves against strong teams from around the world and it has been interesting to be around these teams and play against them. We are at the start of the journey with some new players in the team and it’s just the beginning to getting better.

Russian captain Ekaterina Kosianenko: Congratulations to my team today. In today’s game, we had good reception and attack.

Russian player Nataliya Goncharova: We won 3-0 and it wasn’t a hard match but overall in this competition it hasn’t been very good for our team. We need to play better and must practice with all the players as a team. We need more time to do that. I hope we will be better in the next competition. But we like playing in Japan because there’s always a comfortable atmosphere and the Japanese fans are so nice to us, so we’re happy every time we come to Japan. Many teams here play good volleyball – Brazil, China, USA – and they are very hard to play against. We must try to beat them in the next competition. Hopefully, in the World Championship.

Korean coach Hong Sungjin: When we departed Korea for this competition, I was asked if we could win even one game. This shows how tough it was for us. We played very strong countries – Japan, USA, Russia and China – and it took a lot of work to select the players and prepare for this tournament. We have three years to Tokyo 2020 and we have a plan, so we will proceed one step at a time. I think things will change from next year. We have a lot to analyse from this competition and we will learn from that. Before this competition, the players only had two days of rest so they are tired and their bodies are fatigued. Kim Hee-jin had an elbow problem and Kim Yeon Koung is worn out as she usually has to strike the ball twice as often as the other players, so those two weren’t in our team. I think Tokyo 2020 will be the last Olympics for Kim Yeon Koung. We must think about the current players and develop our younger players with a long-term plan otherwise we won’t even be able to qualify for Tokyo.

Korean captain Kim Su Ji: The usual members of our team were unable to play in this competition so we mainly used younger players. They have a lot to learn but they were able to gain experience in this competition and they will be able to use that experience in the next competition.

Tokyo Round

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report
5 Sep 12:40 Russia  1–3  Brazil 17–25 25–23 23–25 12–25 77–98 P2 P3
5 Sep 15:40 United States  1–3  China 25–18 18–25 14–25 17–25 74–93 P2 P3
5 Sep 19:15 Japan  3–0  South Korea 25–23 25–21 26–24 76–68 P2 P3
6 Sep 12:40 Brazil  2–3  China 20–25 12–25 25–20 25–23 17–19 99–112 P2 P3
6 Sep 15:40 South Korea  0–3  United States 22–25 20–25 16–25 58–75 P2 P3
6 Sep 19:15 Russia  3–1  Japan 22–25 25–18 25–22 28–26 100–91 P2 P3

Nagoya Round

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report
8 Sep 12:40 United States  3–2  Russia 23–25 25–21 19–25 25–21 15–9 107–101 P2 P3
8 Sep 15:40 China  3–0  South Korea 25–14 25–4 25–12 75–30 P2 P3
8 Sep 19:15 Japan  3–2  Brazil 25–18 25–27 25–15 16–25 15–6 106–91 P2 P3
9 Sep 12:40 Russia  0–3  China 20–25 18–25 20–25 58–75 P2 P3
9 Sep 15:40 Brazil  3–0  South Korea 25–15 25–10 25–23 75–48 P2 P3
9 Sep 19:15 Japan  2–3  United States 25–22 21–25 28–26 21–25 12–15 107–113 P2 P3
10 Sep 11:40 South Korea  0–3  Russia 19–25 16–25 21–25 56–75 P2 P3
10 Sep 14:40 United States  0–3  Brazil 20–25 23–25 19–25 62–75 P2 P3
10 Sep 18:15 China  3–1  Japan 25–22 24–26 25–18 25–16 99–82 P2 P3

Final Standings

In This Story

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