Kumi Nakada speaks to the media after Japan's win over Cameroon
Yokohama, Japan, October 3, 2018 - Japan beat Cameroon 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-11) in their fourth match at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship on Wednesday, but coach Kumi Nakada was full of praise for the Africans, who she said proved a tougher opponent than she had been anticipating.
Japan coach Kumi Nakada: We were focused on getting three points but Cameroon were a very good team, better than expected. They had better attacking capabilities than I thought, and neat combination between block and defence, and there are many things we need to correct, like our transitions. Even so, we were able to win in three sets, which was good.
Today I thought our attack from transition wasn’t very well co-ordinated, with combination mistakes being the main reason. Another thing is that our volleyball development, our pace, didn’t really come. That was a prevailing mood in the match. One reason for that was Cameroon’s quick attack from the middle. Our block defence wasn’t quite prepared for this, which is one of the reasons I think we couldn’t find our rhythm.
Japan captain Nana Iwasaka: We weren’t quite able to get the momentum working in our favour from the first set of today’s match, but were rather playing at their pace. From the second set we managed to build some impetus though, and got the sets. Tomorrow is the final game of the Yokohama round, so we want to win tomorrow as well so we can go nicely into the next round.
Cameroon captain Christelle Tchoudjang Nana: First I’d like to say congratulations to Japan for their win. We knew it was going to be a very difficult match today, and we ended up with the result we got. But we were able to give our best and also able to enjoy the match and learn a lot from it. Tomorrow’s match is important for us, the last match of Round 1, so now we will focus on that.
Cameroon coach Akono Jean Rene Bekono: Not much to say after losing today’s match. Japan was a very strong team and tomorrow’s match is going to be very important for us, so now we will start focusing on that.