The Chinese women's volleyball team has been in the past 2 years From the worst in history to the "best in history" The Chinese women's volleyball team was reborn from the ashes in the controversy
From failing to qualify from the group at the Tokyo Olympics and only ranking 9th, "accidentally getting the worst Olympic record", to winning the runner-up of the Women's World Volleyball League this morning, creating the best record in team history since participating in the event, in the past two years, the Chinese women's volleyball team announced its return to the world championship final. Cai Bin, as the head coach, also showed the "Little Zhuge " style of Chinese volleyball in this way.
Three will fade out or retire Cai Bin to start the repair project
In the summer of 2021, the Chinese women's volleyball team stopped in the group stage of the Tokyo Olympics, and the 9th place fell to the lowest point in the history of Olympic competition.
During the Spring Festival last year, Jiangsu women's volleyball coach Cai Bin was ordered to become the new head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, which was his second time at the helm of the national team after more than 10 years. The Chinese women's volleyball team was then announced, including 6 Olympic national players such as Yuan Xinyue, Ding Xia, Gong Xiangyu, Li Yingying, Wang Yuanyuan and Wang Mengjie, as well as domestic players such as Wang Yunbi and Yang Hanyu. Yan Ni, Zhang Changning, Liu Xiaotong, and Liu Yanhan, who participated in the Tokyo Olympics, were not selected because they faded out of volleyball, and Zhu Ting, a core player of the Lang Ping era, was not included in the list due to injuries and playing abroad.
In the Chinese women's volleyball team in the Lang Ping era, Zhu Ting, Zhang Changning and Yan Ni were the absolute main players in the team. Zhu Zhang and General Zhu Zhang are both world-class heavy gunners, responsible for offense and passing, and Yan Ni is the world's top secondary attacker, especially good at blocking nets. The whole team suddenly lacked 3 main players and re-set sail for the Chinese women's volleyball team, and the strength at that time could be imagined.
Fortunately, Li Yingying took over Zhu Ting's mantle in time. In the past few years, the rising star has gradually matured through the tempering of domestic and international competitions, and her No. 4 position and back-row attack, and passing are quite Zhu Ting's style. It turned out afterwards that in the days without Zhu Ting and Zhang Changning, Li Yingying undertook the heavy responsibility of the Chinese women's volleyball team. Who plays diagonally with Li Yingying? After the investigation of the intensive training period, Cai Bin chose the older Wang Yunbi and Jin Ye, and did not choose rookies such as Wu Mengjie, who was highly popular from the outside world. In the second setter position, Cai Bin chose his Jiangsu team's old department Diao Linyu, which is the main change of the Chinese women's volleyball team in the new era. Yuan Xinyue, Wang Yuanyuan, Gong Xiangyu, three Olympic national players, respectively played the roles of main secondary attack and second setter. The main free man is still Wang Mengjie.
Sixth place in both competitions The main squad surfaced
Last season, the Women's World Volleyball League and the World Championship were two important events for the Chinese women's volleyball team.
In the 2022 Women's World Volleyball League, China started flat, although it defeated strong teams such as Italy with an irregular lineup, but lost to two Asian teams, Japan and Thailand, exposing the lack of tacit understanding between attack and defense of the whole team. With the gradual deepening of the event, the Chinese women's volleyball team practiced by the competition became normal, and entered the finals stage as she wished, and finally won the 6th place.
The Chinese women's volleyball team, which lacks three world-class players, Zhu Ting, Zhang Changning and Yan Ni, cannot be compared with European strong teams. In the subsequent World Championships, the Chinese women's volleyball team also played well, meeting the Asian traditional strong team Japan, subduing the opponent with online superiority, and encountering the Netherlands, Belgium and other European second- and third-rate teams, it won the upper hand with a combination of high and fast. However, in the face of first-class teams in Europe and the United States such as Brazil and Italy, the overall ability of the Chinese women's volleyball team has been undoubtedly exposed: attack, offensive firepower is slightly thin; defense, the opponent's offensive power is too great; In addition, its own serve and blocking system have not yet reached the ideal state. In the end, the Chinese women's volleyball team stopped at the 1/4 final, and the ranking was the same as when the World Women's Volleyball League was - sixth.
After the test of the World Women's Volleyball League and the World Championship, the main lineup in Cai Bin's mind surfaced, they are: main attackers Li Yingying and Wang Yunwei, deputy attackers Yuan Xinyue and Wang Yuanyuan, receiving second setter Gong Xiangyu, second setter Diao Linyu, free man Wang Mengjie.
The World League suffered four consecutive defeats, and the main lineup caused controversy
There are many objections to the main lineup launched by Cai Bin. Some believe that Wang Yunbi's offensive ability is mediocre and should provide opportunities for rookies such as Wu Mengjie to show their talents. Some people think that there are some problems with Yuan Xinyue and Wang Yuanyuan's blocking and attacking, and the secondary attack position should not be handled by them. Some people think that Gong Xiangyu is one or two notches worse in offensive firepower than the second setter in Europe and the United States. Some people think that Diao Linyu is not enough to bear the heavy responsibility of organizing the attack of the whole team...
Cai Bin did not adopt these "voices outside the strings". This year's Women's World Volleyball League kicked off, and he still launched that lineup. However, a six-game winning streak after the start of the game impressed the outside world, and the unanimous opinion was that "the pace of attack and defense has become faster". Obviously, this is the result of the second winter training. However, many people have criticized the unchanged lineup of the main lineup. Some people also remind that the first few rounds of the game are either not famous, or the lineup is not tidy, the reference value is not large, and the real test is later.
Sure enough, Poland beat him 0:3 in the seventh round. Unexpectedly, since then, the Chinese women's volleyball team has lost 3 consecutive games, and even lost to the Dominican team, which has been losing for many years. At this time, the outside world has revived Cai Bin's "denunciation wind", seriously optimistic about the team's Paris Olympic prospects.
Achieving quantitative change to qualitative change Women's volleyball is always worth looking forward to
Like the last World Women's Volleyball League, the Chinese women's volleyball team entered the finals with a mid-to-the-beaten-up ranking, and the upgraded Brazilian team in the 1/4 final, compared with the sub-tournament, the team added Taiza and Gabi. The Chinese women's volleyball team won 3:2 in the sub-tournament, and the outside world was generally not optimistic about the Chinese women's volleyball team for the second match between the two sides.
No one expected that the Chinese women's volleyball team at this time quietly completed the process of changing from quantity to quality. After twenty or thirty matches in the 2022 Women's World Volleyball League, the 2022 World Championship and the 2023 Women's World Volleyball League, the women's volleyball girl finally found the feeling of "going to the next level". In the 1/4 finals of China-Pakistan 1/4, everyone was pleased to find that the offensive rhythm of the Chinese women's volleyball team was further accelerated, the offensive routine was flexible, the serving and blocking were more powerful, and the starting rate of the back row was improved. All the changes have brought about the improvement of the self-confidence of the Chinese women's volleyball players. In the battle between China and Pakistan, the Chinese team undeniably defeated the opponent 3:1.
The semi-final between China and Poland two days later. Facing the European dark horse who defeated itself 3:0 in the sub-tournament, the Chinese women's volleyball team that opened the "second pulse of Ren Du" dominated me, controlled the initiative in the whole game, and returned the tough opponent with a clean 3:0 to enter the final with its head held high. This is the first time that the Chinese women's volleyball team has reached the championship and runner-up finals of the Women's World Volleyball League (Note: excluding its predecessor, the World Women's Volleyball Grand Prix, and the Chinese women's volleyball team won the World Women's Volleyball Grand Prix finals in 2003).
In the final held on the morning of July 17, Beijing time, the Chinese women's volleyball team lost 1:3 to Turkey, which has a super first-class offensive end, after four hard games. It is a pity to pass by the champion, but the thrilling process of the women's volleyball player's rebirth in the past two years has proved that she is still an indispensable role in the world volleyball scene. From the 9th place in the Olympic Games, to the 6th place in the World Championships, and then to the runner-up of this year's National Women's Volleyball League, the Chinese women's volleyball team has gone hard and tortuous along the way, and what remains unchanged is that this team has always bloomed with the light of "women's volleyball spirit". To the team of heroes with strong convictions, each and every one of us should applaud.
In the past two years, the Chinese women's volleyball team has really not been easy. In the coming year, I wish the Chinese women's volleyball team a higher level!
(Wang Quanli)