MATCH INFO

Japan coach Tatsuya Ueta: For the first set, we checked how they were serving and we still have to work on blocking. We must use every position to get points, so we will work on that. I wanted to use (Kunihiro) Shimizu at some point but didn’t know when to put him in. I want to use him and the other players who didn’t get to play today.

(Re. blocking and facing Asian teams): The players didn’t block at the right position so we have to work on looking at who’s hitting against them and reacting to them. Against Korea and China, we will have to get points on our serve like today. Australia will be more like a European team, so will have to use other techniques when we face them. 

Japan captain Daisuke Usami: It was a good performance today and the important point was correcting yesterday’s mistakes. We talked about it and determined that we shouldn’t miss so much and we came into the game in a more positive frame of mind. Venezuela were an aggressive team but we could generally do what we wanted to do. In the third set, we were able to win thanks to errors by Venezuela as we had a few problems. We found various things that need improving, so we have to work on those before we meet Korea. 

Japan No. 14 Tatsuya Fukuzawa: From last night we learned we should improve our serving and this morning we talked about that and how Venezuela are good at receiving. So we put pressure on their reception and that helped us win. 

Japan No. 18 Yuta Yoneyama: We lost yesterday so in our team talk we said we have to concentrate on today’s match. It was good that we could win in three sets, but we made many mistakes so we have to improve for the remaining games. 

(Re. games against Asian teams): We’ve got three games against Asian teams and the next game is against Korea. They are mentally strong, so we don’t want to lose on that point. 

Venezuela captain Kervin Pinerua: I’m not happy that we lost, but at the same time I’m happy we could play against Japan, which is a really high-level team. I’m honoured about that. Japan has a long history while we are still a relatively new team. Today was a tough match. As a team, we were totally different from yesterday. We were full of spirit and power and we had fun out there. Although we lost, we enjoyed the match and it was a good experience for us.

Venezuela coach Roberto Garcia: Yesterday unfortunately we were bad at defending and attacking. But today, as my captain said we were totally different. We had good balance and we blocked well. But Japan received our serves well. Although we lost, we were able to get good experience and that was good for us. I also want to pay my compliments to the Japanese fans for the way they supported their team.