The Philippine Superliga’s topflight teams will be playing blind when they battle Kobe Shinwa Women’s University in the final round of the Invitational Conference, starting Thursday at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan.
Seasoned coaches Shaq Delos Santos of the Petron Blaze Spikers and George Pascua of the Cignal HD Spikers admitted they have not scouted the young Japanese squad, which will serve as the fourth team in the final stage of the tournament.
Delos Santos said they tried their best to search Shinwa’s past games online for any available video, but their attempts yielded negative results.
On the same note, Pascua said Kobe Shinwa remains shrouded with mystery, as he has yet to get any information on how they play.
“All I know is that [they play] Japanese brand of volleyball to perfection,” said Pascua, who called the shots for Petron when they had tangled with Japanese powerhouse Hisamitsu Springs in the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship in Phu Ly, Vietnam, back in 2015.
“Other than that, we have no idea on how [they play]. We tried looking for any available videos online, but we can’t get anything. I guess we’ll just work on the scouting when they arrive here on Tuesday.”
Even veteran international campaigner Moro Branislav of the Foton Tornadoes admitted that facing Kobe Shinwa will be a major challenge, especially after they lost star spiker Dindin Manabat to a knee injury.
Manabat sustained a grade 2 MCL sprain and a partial ACL tear in their marathon match against Sta. Lucia last week, a development that sidelines her for the rest of the conference.
Foton will be the first to test the mettle of the Japanese, followed by Cignal on Friday, then Petron on Saturday in the final match of this tourney.
“This is a very big problem for Foton,” said the noted Serbian tactician.
“Although I know that this Japanese team from Kobe is very good, I have no idea on how it plays. Let’s see what will happen. We will do our best to beat them.”
Pascua has the luxury of having RC Cola-Army veterans Jovelyn Gonzaga, Royse Tubino, and Rachel Daquis on his side, however. The Cignal neophytes were part of the team that stunned Thai club team Est Cola last year.
“Jovelyn, Royse, and Rachel were part of the Army team that beat the juniors team of Thailand last year,” added Pascua.
“So we will be banking on the experience of our veterans to pull it off. It’s tough, but we will try our very best.”
