LEGENDARY MATCH | JAPAN vs CHINA | Women's VNL 2024

Japan get to 20 points. That's not very good. 21 of another ace. The aces are continuing to come thick and fast. Michika Yamada. I love this interaction by being head coach, literally grabbing his player. She's going for it. Watch him grab her. He's saying there's absolutely no way I'm letting you hurt. I've never even seen that. Love the interaction. Third ace from Yamada. Is this one going to go? Oh, it got a bit crossed up. That just did not fall kindly at all for Ayaka Araki. We just couldn't get out of the way to let Aseta get there. Japan had an 18-12 lead. That seems so long ago at this point. Just getting a little out of system. And you don't want to be seeing Li Yingying serving at you. That's for Michika Araki. No. Put some hands on that to slow it down. Wu will come in and you're not slowing that down. Incredible reach by Yu. The approach was perfect. Contact made at the highest peak of the set. The thing is Japan's block looks good. It's connected. It's just not tall enough. So Li, Li lefty sending it wide again. They've got underneath this one as well. And here comes Wu. That's not going to be an easy one. Bullied at the net. Bullied Japan at the net. That was really good work there from Wu. I mean that is some cut shot from Gong Zhang Yu. That is wow. Gong Zhang Yu putting all the velocity from her body into this approach where she comes down on the ground. That shows you how hard she's hitting. Literally snapping her whole body in the air. You know that big lead. It's getting a bit narrow. China just down by two now. Problem is when you're playing catch up you've just got no margin for error at all. This is where you might see Japan not serve as aggressively as they were earlier. Again had such a big lead. Let's see what Iwasaki does. Sneaky one. Masato Joe just has to send that over. A real chance here for Araki and she's grabbed it suddenly. They've got breathing room again. 23-19. Gonna be tough to come back from this and he knows that. Araki is such a clutch player. When the ball is set to her teammates can breathe. She is so consistent. She's precise and she brings that intensity. Iwasaki on serve once again. This is from Koga. She can't get through the block. Koga will come in and just let rip straight down main street at Li Yingying who's got no chance at that set point. Japan spreading the wealth when it comes to offense. Getting the back row involved again and Koga has a wide open net. I'm shocked China didn't have even one blocker against her. Koga's had an outstanding first set. Iwasaki sends in a short one. Gets picked up. Should go. Wu rips it. That was so good. Koga was in the vicinity and could barely even move as that ball flew past her. When Wu's hitting that you got to make sure your block is strong so the defense can set around the block. And they just keep it going here China. This for the set. I'll tell you exactly what happened there. That China block didn't work with here in Japan. It's going to stay cool. Iwasaki sends it back side. That's going to be kept alive Li but it's come over on second contact. Another chance at it. Oh now they're out of sync. Koga can't attack. Yuan goes for the little dink. Somehow that's been kept alive. Goodness me. I mean that is outstanding Libero work and still it goes on here. Kojima who had that. Libero. She can't set up a winner. Here comes Wu and China are not going quietly. Biggest rally of the set so far. Both teams getting such great digs but eventually China's offense is just suffocating Japan right now. But that up from Kojima. She is all over the floor. China is going to start avoiding her at all costs. Well the nerve to make it difficult for Japan and that's not really very difficult at all. Which is why it's been able to be put away down the line by Hayashi and off that timeout Japan finish what they started so well. Go on. Move on. Lovely pass. It's amazing how many gaps that she finds on the floor on the other side of the net Serena Koga over and over again. And it started with that perfect three option pass from Kojima especially after that drama before that first pass not letting it stop her. Still China pretty much unassailable here. Another nice pass. Takes it early. Takes it high. I mean we're getting a lot of libero love here. Wang Mingjue showing that she can do that stuff as well. Lesson for both China and Japan. Avoid the liberos. You cannot afford to serve them. It's going to be a three option pass. Gong with the serve again. A lovely pickup Koga this time. But that's just going to get contained and there's a very good chance that Gong can find somewhere. No she can't. Kojima picking that one up. And then same story on the other side and the finishes from Li Yingying. Well that's a way to bring up set points sorry. Absolutely Li Yingying finally putting the ball down after the battle of the liberos and Li Yingying touching the ISO block in front of her. Serving to level it up at one each in. Lovely sneaky serve. It was very well picked up as well by Kojima and Ayashi will just delay the inevitable here unless Ayui Miyabe can conjure up something absolutely magical from the end line here for Japan. This should be it. Got some contain there on Yuan. But you always want to see this. They may get to set point the other guys. Make them sweat. And build momentum even though it'd be really hard for Japan. Miyabe went cross court last time. Stays that way as well. It's going to be picked up and Wu will rip it off the hands and away and we are level at one a piece. Great end. To get up off the floor here goes Inoue again. Absolutely laid into that one. Kept alive somehow. Free ball and a really short one as well. Nagasaki will send it over to Koga. See you later. 17 attacks for Koga. The next closest player in the gym is Li Yingying with 13. Koga is going off right now. China can do nothing to stop her and they're trying to take away the shots. She's just going around them. Koga makes a mistake. I'm not sure I can remember another one from this match. Even Koga's human apparently. We just learned. But when you have that much of a lead those serves simply don't sting as much when they're missed. Yeah. As Dio has to try and eat into this six-point deficit here and Koga's like yeah okay you're calling me out for the error. Call me out for this one as well. A clean straight down main street winner out of the back row. And I really like that. The fact that the ball was given from Iwasaki back to Koga giving her a redemption chance and getting that attack. Yamada. Interesting serve. Li gets contained again. So this is coming back off of a knee I think it was. It's put up in the air by Hayashi. Iwasaki is going to send that over. They'll have to win it again here China. Finally. Finally. Took them three goes to win that. Such a fluid swing from Wang. Looking robotic. It's perfect. Number seven. Look at that. How she jumps and swings her arm. She's so in sync. Here's Li who does have three aces I think to her name already. Not going to get a fourth there. Inoue clever. May Dio absolutely try and take that on with no one behind her as well. Inoue silencing the crowd of 6,000 people here in China. Not even with the hardest hit but a smart shot. Not to be scared off by Gong's reach in front of her. 23-16. Iwasaki with serve and lead. Not the greatest of passes there. They get a piece of this. Iwasaki will send it back side. Hayashi that's up and away and there's a bit of contact at the net I believe from I think that might just have been Zhang drifting in. Let's take another look. Yeah it is. One of the downsides of being that tall and athletic. Overcorrecting to the net and just off the bench as well. Not really up to game speed. This is set points galore here with Zhang. Takes one off to a good goal mate. Power hit from Eugene. Look how high that ball goes from contact from Japan. That shows you how hard she is hitting and Zhang really brought in towards the middle throwing off the blocker. Well there's one set point saved and here comes another chance. It's another terrific bit of work there from Dio this time. Here goes Zhang again. Gets through the block but not the back row. Iwasaki will set it up down the line. Comes straight back over from Inoue and then there's an overpass that gets punished. Right still set point. Iwasaki sent it over to Inoue and that'll do it. Japan take a 2-1 lead and you can hear the reaction in the Galaxy Arena. I mean they're a little bit... Two points needed to wrap up a huge win here Japan. They might get one of them right here. No not going to work for Inoue. Aggressive hit from Zhu Ting trying to give her team some sort of life right now. It might be too late but she's doing everything she can do at the front. Well if they can get four or five points it could yet get interesting but I don't think anybody's putting any money on that. Let's come back from Koga. Now they're starting to play a little bit scrappy here. China, Zhu Ting will wind up and does that catch any hands? I don't think so. It's going to get looked at. The referee doing absolutely the right thing. If you're not sure send it upstairs but the reaction from the Japanese players was we did not touch that. I was looking at Zhu Ting's reaction because every time she makes a mistake she puts her hand up in the air and owns it. She's not one to try and pull that acting. But the interesting thing is I think one of the Japan players has said yeah actually I did touch it. Japan still with some work to do here. Trying to get tricky there Zhu Ting. Zhu Ting that's not 100% up to game speed yet I might add. The game speed Zhu Ting does not miss that but here we go. We are at match point and what a moment to be introduced. Ai Kurogo will come on and be told go on you can serve an ace and win the match against China. Sounds easy doesn't it? Let's see. Kurogo for the match. Should come back. 20 attacks for Li Yingying. Really strong performance from her tonight but it has to be frustrating when they deserve to be there. Oh yeah absolutely. Nobody's going to be playing them in Paris or here for that matter. Not on this evidence. It's been a fabulous performance. Does it end here? Yes it does. Ayashi into the block and down and Japan have stunned a near silent Galaxy Arena here. I don't think they can believe what they've just seen these fans. They came for a party. Thanks for watching. Leave a like and make sure to subscribe to Power Volleyball for more volleyball videos.