【HD】2001 🇯🇵 Japan vs China 🇨🇳 🏐 Women Volleyball 🏐 FIVB World Grand Prix

2001 was the first year of new Olympic cycle begin. With Cuban squad most of the players retired and Cuba dynasty had officially announced to the end. China, Brazil, USA used lots of new players. Italy and Russia probably the least changes comparing to other teams. Post-Match Commentary : Nippon unable to qualify for 2000 Olympic and the coach was fired. In 2001, the Japanese squad with many experienced players. #2 Chikako Kumamae (27yo, 1.8m), #11 Yoshie Takeshita (23yo, 1.59m) had been played in 1997-2000. China remained #5 Wu Yongmei (26yo, 1.86m) to lead the team. New head coach, Chen Zhonghe, was appointed too. Many of the Chinese players were 1980 born. It's very rare the coach didn't keep the experienced but young player such as Zhu Yunying (23yo) & Qiu Aihia (24yo) in the team. Main reason was to train new players. This was Week 1 match held in Hong Kong. It was clearly a match of experienced vs new team. In my memory, Japan had won once against China in 1994 of this tournament. This was the 2nd time. The third & the last time won China in World Grand Prix was 2014. Nippon #6 Shinako Tanaka (26yo, 1.72m) newly selected in the team but she caused a lot of trouble to China. With #11 Takeshita diversify setting, China unable to block the quick Japanese attack. In this pool, Cuba and Brazil were the other 2 teams but both of them lost to this new Japan team. It was the 1st time after 1994 Nippon get the 1st in preliminary round pool.