18-Nov, start time: 18:00, end time: 20:18 - Attendance: 10,300

CAN	2	21	16	27	25	13	102
JPN	3	25	25	25	20	15	110

Match Description:

Japan stem brave Canadian fight back
2003 Men's World Cup hosts Japan held off a sensational comeback back from Canada to maintain their unbeaten run in this Olympic qualifying event with a crowd-inspired five-set win in the final match of day three in the Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo on Tuesday.

After an intense opening stanza when both sides tried to cope with the superb atmosphere generated by the 10,000-strong crowd Japan settled quicker and pulled away with captain Yoichi Kato and MIP Takahiro Yamamoto unleashing some devastating spikes. Once Japan had opened a 17-14 lead Canada couldn't fight their way back, despite the best efforts of their big men Murray Grapentine and Jason Haldane, and the home side soon wrapped up the opening set.

Japan continued in much the same vein in the second set with a Yamamoto spike taking them out to a 16-9 lead while Kato served an ace to make it 20-11. Further quality setting from Daisuke Usami set Nobuyoshi Hosokawa up for the smash before Kenji Onoue produced the final kill to complete the second set win.

By this stage Japan were gelling together superbly and provided plenty of headaches for Canada, who really struggled in the red hot atmosphere. But the usually composed plays of the North Americans, which had gone desperately missing in the first two sets, returned in the third when they sneaked a 27-25 set win courtesy of a Chris Wolfenden block.

Canada then continued their fight back in the fourth set on the back of some sterling all round play from Steve Brinkman by turning a 10-8 lead into a 25-20 set win to take it into the tie breaker.

Again, there was little between the teams in the fifth set cliffhanger before Wolfenden spiked out, giving Japan the impetus to go on and record their third victory, much to the euphoria of the fans.

Comments:

TANAKA, Mikiyasu (JPN Head Coach)
We could have won 3-0 if it were the old rule. The ten minutes interval after two sets, worked well for Canadian team. They had time to change their tactics against us. Yamamoto played very well through out this game.

KATO, Yoichi (JPN Captain)
I tried to break their rhythms when I serve. We couldn't block well for their right side attackers, that's why this game went into full sets. If our blocking gets better, we would play much better.

DEROCCO, Stelio (CAN Head Coach)
It was a fantastic environment to play. In the first two sets, we were unable to block well. Rhythm of our defense was not good. But we could show our pride and aggressiveness in the last three sets. I'm proud of our players. Unfortunately, two of our players were injured. Paul Duerden sprained his ankle and Fred Winters had pain in his back.

KOSKIE, Scott (CAN Captain)
I am not satisfied with how we start the game. We made so many mistakes and were led 0-2. But we were able to come back to 2-2. Unfortunately, we were unable to win the game but we are proud of ourselves and how we played. If we keep our concentration that we showed in the last three sets, we could play more good games

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF