21-Nov, start time: 18:00, end time: 19:50 - Attendance: 6,500

JPN	1	25	18	22	20	-	85
SCG	3	21	25	25	25	-	96

Match Description:

Another wake up call for Serbia and Montenegro
A sleepy Serbia and Montenegro side were given yet another wake up call on Friday, dropping the first set before powering past a brave Japanese side to complete Round Two of the 2003 Men's World Cup in the Hiroshima Green Arena.

In a match that would prove a true test of Japan's character the hosts looked as though they had really met their match when the towering Serbia and Montenegro lineup efficiently opened a 4-1 lead in the first set but on the back of some more animated local support Japan clawed their way back with the tournament's top scorer Takahiro Yamamoto striking with his powerful left arm to put them in front at 12-11. A Nikola Grbic serve into the net and Japan were ahead by 22-19 so it was left to skipper Yoichi Kato to smash down the middle for his eighth point to seal the first set.

Japan crept ahead again at the start of the second set as the faces of the Blue Team became increasingly anxious and despite an improvement in serve on the part of the Olympic champions, Japanese libero Katsutoshi Tsumagari led the way in taking the venom out of the power of Grbic and co. It wasn't until Ivan Miljkovic fired down two smashes that Serbia and Montenegro were substantially ahead at 20-17, and MIP Andrea Geric finished the second set proceedings with a block.

A dramatic increase in intensity on the part of the favourites was evident at the start of the third set. There was no holding back as Miljkovic and Geric started raining down spike after spike and the Europeans started finding the holes to open a three point lead midway through the set. The power of Miljkovic in particular was too much for the Japanese and although they managed to complete their plays, there was no surprise when Goran Vujevic spiked into Nobuyoshi Hosokawa and out of court for the final point of the set.

The fourth set started with Japan keeping their noses in front at 14-11 but it wasn't long before incredibly blocking from Geric took the Olympic champs to their fifth victory of the tournament.

Comments:

TRAVICA, Ljubomir (SCG, Head Coach)
It was an exciting and hard match. Before the match, I thought that it should be a tough match, because Japan had been playing good and solid. As we played 5 games in 6 days, our players felt a little tired. To win this match was very important for us. We try to win the next three matches in Fukuoka and prepare for the final three matches in Tokyo.

GRBIC, Nikola (SCG, Captain)
You could have found this would be an easy match for us based on the statistics, but actually not. It was a close match. We played equally by the final moments in each set. We were fortunate to manage some break points to win three sets after losing the first set. Ifm satisfied with the result.

TANAKA, Mikiyasu (JPN, Head Coach)
They have quite effective blocking. We fought hard to have many chances. But their strong blocking prevailed. Had we delivered more strong and effective serving, we could have better chance to win. We need to improve our inconsistent serving for the coming matches.

KATO, Yoichi (JPN, Captain)
We knew that they normally make few errors. But today they made a lot of mistakes. Unfortunately we could not take advantage of those mistakes. We showed good defense but could not manage to break their strong blocking.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF