May 19, Beijing time, was a very disappointing day for the fans of the Chinese men's volleyball team. The first game of the 2023 China-Japan Men's Volleyball Friendly Match was played in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, and the Chinese men's volleyball team defeated the Japanese first team 0-5, with the scores of five sets being 19-25, 20-25, 17-25, 17-25, 4-15.
This year, the Chinese men's volleyball team has a heavy task, the first international event is the World Men's Volleyball League, which will be held from June 6 to July 23, followed by the men's volleyball Asian Championship, the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Paris Olympic qualification match.
Therefore, the team started intensive training early, starting in early February in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province for more than 40 days, and starting the second phase of intensive training in Beilun, Ningbo in April. And Jiang Chuan, Zhang Jingyin, Yu Yuantai, Wang Dongchen and other players have fought overseas to enhance their strength.
In order to test the training results, the Chinese men's volleyball team plans to play five warm-up matches against the first and second teams of the Japanese men's volleyball team from May 19 to June 3. Jiang Chuan, Zhang Jingyin and other overseas players returned, and fans generally had a lot of expectations for the team.
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In the first warm-up match on the afternoon of May 19, the starting lineup of the Chinese team was Zhang Jingyin and Yu Yuantai, followed by Jiang Chuan, second setter Guo Cheng, secondary attack Li Yongzhen and Wang Dongchen, and free man Qu Zongshuai.
Unfortunately, the Chinese team fell behind comprehensively in terms of serve, serve, blocking and scoring, completely collapsed, was swept by the opponent in five games, and the Japanese team was even suspected of deliberately releasing water in the last game.
Fans questioned: "What has the Chinese men's volleyball team practiced in recent months?" ”
The second setter position is the current shortcomings of the Chinese men's volleyball team, last year's national team main setter Yu Yaochen studied in Japan, the current team Guo Cheng, Chen Leiqiao, Wang Hebin strength is still lacking. The 68-year-old veteran coach Shen Fulin joined the team on May 7 to help the team train the second setter.
In this warm-up match with the Japanese team, it was obvious that the main setter Guo Cheng's scoring speed was slow, resulting in the whole team being restrained by the faster Japanese team.
At 12 o'clock on May 20, the China-Japan men's volleyball team will play the second match in Toyama On May 27, 28 and June 3, the Chinese men's volleyball team will also play three matches against the Japanese second team in Iwate Prefecture.
After five warm-up matches, the Chinese men's volleyball team will stay in Nagoya, Japan, to participate in the opening tournament of the World League, which begins on June 6, to face fierce rivals such as Bulgaria, Serbia, France and Iran.