2017 WORLD GRAND CHAMPIONS CUP – WOMEN’S
- September 5-9
- Nagoya and Osaka, Japan
- Preview
- Women – Schedule/Results
- WATCH LIVE
The Chinese women’s national team will have its victory lap on Sunday at the 2017 FIVB Women’s World Grand Champions Cup. When they play Japan in Nagoya in the final match of the tournament, their gold medal and place in history will be secured. With the win, China will match Brazil atop the all-time table for the event with 2 golds – though Brazil is still in the hunt for a minor medal which would give them a tie-breaker for most successful teams on either silver or bronze medals.
But that doesn’t mean the match will be meaningless.
Japan, who are in 4th place with 1 round of games left to play in the single round-robin tournament, could fall to 5th place or wind up in 3rd and on the podium, depending on the outcome of the day’s events.
If Russia wins 3-0 or 3-1 and Japan loses 3-0 or 3-1, then Russia moves past them for 4th. If Japan pulls off a big upset of China, then they could earn a medal depending on the outcome of the USA vs. Brazil match.
In either case, the cleanest, and at this point most likely, scenario comes by China beating Japan. That would lock the USA and Brazil into the final two podium spots in some order.
Japan, though, will be playing for some pride in front of a home crowd that has supported them well all week – with sellout and near sellout crowds in spite of Japan being in only 4th place. Finishing against the Olympic champions China and against a continental rival in a region where those battles can mean more than higher-profile international affairs.
China, however, is playing to avoid becoming the first-ever Grand Champions cup winner to lose a match. Surprisingly, even in a tournament that pits the best-of-the-best in the world against one another, there has never been enough parity that a team has lost a match and still won the tournament.
The final match will start at 18:15 local time, which is 6:15 AM U.S. Easts Coast Time or 09:15 GMT.
Editor’s note: Video not made available in the United States. If you are not in the United States, but an error in YouTube’s geolocation service is still blocking your access, you can use a program like TunnelBear to redirect to the proper country.
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