On July 24, 2025, the FIVB World Grand Prix Finals began in earnest. The defending champions, Italy, secured their spot in the semifinals with a decisive 3-0 victory over the United States in the quarterfinals. Although their performance today was not seamless, it likely stemmed from being out of form and facing certain issues, particularly in their main attack and the Americans' effective use of drop shots.
Currently, the U.S. possesses the physical attributes to defeat Italy, such as strong serving. However, their overall soft power remains lacking, characterized by numerous errors, poor connectivity, unstable passing, and a relentless pursuit of acceleration in counterattacks.
In another quarterfinal match, China faced Poland, a team they had previously met in the Beijing leg, where China suffered a defeat. While their performance in that match was average with some fluctuations, the current Chinese team has notably improved. Their cohesion in various aspects is becoming more adept, supported by their deep-rooted experience as Olympic champions and finalists in the previous Grand Prix.
The match began with Poland quickly finding their rhythm, demonstrating stable attacks and strong counterattacks to lead 6-3. After Gong Xiangyu's block narrowed the gap to 7-8, she later scored again to tie at 8-8. Wu Mengjie's serve directly scored, followed by Wang Yuanyuan's block, leading to a consecutive 5-point streak and a 10-8 lead overturn. Poland briefly returned, grabbing the lead again at 11-10, but Wu Mengjie's serve directly scored, and Gong Xiangyu's spike out of bounds led to another lead change to 15-13. During this period, Wu Mengjie excelled, continuously executing difficult adjustment attacks and scoring consecutively, helping China lead 19-14. Zhuang Yushan's excellent performance in the latter half secured the first set with a score of 25-17.
In this set, China performed well in serving, attacking, and defending, winning the attack phase 16-12, with Wu Mengjie scoring 7 points individually.
In the second set, China led 4-2 early on, with quick attacks from the third position showing quality and speed, and Zhuang Yushan's adjustment attacks were skillful. Wu Mengjie crossed the ball through Poland's three-person block, followed by a single block scoring 8-4 lead. Later, the Polish team played very tenaciously, fought fiercely, or was tied by the score of 14-14. Their blocking gradually put pressure on the Chinese team and turned over 21-19 to lead, and their play was more stable in this period, showing strong strength in the net mouth and showing up in the attack quality, but in the end, It was 25-20 them reverse.
The Such Was
