At 4:30 on May 15, Beijing time, the Chinese women's volleyball team is about to usher in a showdown with the South Korean women's volleyball team, the first opponent of the World League. I am very much looking forward to the emergence of a new lineup of the Chinese women's volleyball team after more than two months of intensive training.
In July last year, Cai Bin reused the "Seven Fairies" that he had built for two years to win the runner-up in the 2023 World Women's Volleyball League, but only a little more than a month later, he failed miserably in the Olympic qualifying tournament held in Ningbo, his hometown, losing to Canada, the Netherlands, and Dominica one after another, ranking only tenth, and failing to qualify for the Paris Olympics in advance. Tracing back the reasons for the defeat, in addition to the rhythm of Cai Bin leading the team and the problems with the on-the-spot command, it has a lot to do with the fact that only one set of lineups has been used to the end for two consecutive years! At that time, in the game with Canada and the Netherlands, the advantage was on our side, but after the opposing coach changed the formation in time, Cai Bin had nothing to do, so he could only watch the opponent reverse by his arms.
The Chinese women's volleyball team lost the Olympic competition
We saw that in the list of the Chinese women's volleyball team to participate in the World League, Cai Bin brought five main attackers, including Zhang Changning, Li Yingying, Wang Yunrui, Wu Mengjie, and Wang Yizhu. After more than two months of intensive training and technical and tactical drills, I am looking forward to Cai Bin being able to come up with a new lineup that is different from the past.
The most anticipated is the combination of Zhang Changning and Li Yingying. Zhang Changning used to be the main core of the national team in the Tokyo Olympic cycle, playing diagonally with Zhu Ting. At the Tokyo Olympics, after Zhu Ting's injury, Zhang Changning and Li Yingying teamed up to win the last two matches against Italy and Argentina, and the pair performed very well. The main players who won these two games at that time also included Yao Di, Gong Xiangyu, Yuan Xinyue, Wang Yuanyuan and Wang Mengjie. I believe that after more than two months of intensive training, Zhang Changning is ready to show his physical fitness and skills, hoping to find the rhythm and state of the international competition step by step in the next World League.
Zhang Changning
Another set of expected lineups is the combination of Li Yingying and Wu Mengjie. The head coach of this national team blindly used old players in order to ensure the results and completely ignored the training of young players, like Wu Mengjie and Zhou Yetong, these two post-02 players with great potential, if they enter the national team from 2022 to focus on training and give more opportunities to participate in international competitions, not only has the technology advanced by leaps and bounds, but also reserves talents for the core of the national team in the next cycle. In the next cycle, Wu Mengjie and Zhou Yetong are definitely players who want to play a major role in the national team. Due to the importance of this year's World League, Wu Mengjie is unlikely to serve as the main force due to her shortcomings. However, in some non-key games, I still hope to let her play more and accumulate more experience in international competitions.
Li Yingying and Wu Mengjie
Another exciting combination is Li Yingying and Wang Yizhu. The two of them performed very well in last year's Club World Cup, especially Wang Yizhu, who proved himself through several tough matches. But I feel that Cai Bin will not use this Tianjin combination!
For the combination of Li Yingying and Wang Yunrui, I hope Cai Bin still doesn't go to the main game, because this combination has been thoroughly studied by the opponents, and last year's Olympic Tournament proved that it was not good. Wang Yunrui's loopholes in offense and blocking are too obvious, and it is recommended that Wang Yunrui be used as a serve and a pass substitute is more appropriate.
The World League is about to start, and CCTV will broadcast all four matches of the Chinese women's volleyball team. Let's pay attention to it together and cheer for the women's volleyball team together!