Japan win women's volleyball bronze medal match

LONDON - Japan's women volleyball team has been back on the Olympic podium in 28 years after winning the bronze medal in London on Saturday.

With the impressive performance of two "Saoris", Kimura and Sakoda,they upset Asian arch rival South Korea 25-22, 26-24, 25-21. South Korean star Kim Yeon-Koung once again top scored for her side with 22 points, but was eventually bested by Saori Sakoda who paced Japan offense with 23.

Japan's players celebrate winning their women's bronze medal volleyball match against South Korea at Earls Court during the London 2012 Olympic Games August 11, 2012. Japan beat South Korea 3-0 (25-22, 26-24, 25-21). [Photo/Agencies]

The last time Japan had finished among the top three was in 1984, when they won the first bronze medal.

"Teamwork was the key to our victory. Players performed extremely well. My brain got so empty when the match was over. Today was the last day of the last three and a half years. Of course we needed to think of win or lose but I let them enjoy the particular last day," said Japan's head coach Masayoshi Manabe.

Despite the loss, the South Koreans deserved to celebrate their returns to semi-finals at the Olympics. Their last showing-up in the top four was at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, when they won a bronze medal.

"I believe that throughout the match we played at a high level. However, the referee's decisions ended up breaking momentum and lowering morale several times, so we couldn't play our best," said Kim.

"For those areas that we didn't do well, we will try to improve on them to do better next time, and for the areas that we did well, we will continue to build on our strengths," she said.

Japan caught a flying start going quickly up 4-0 before South Korean star Kim Yeon-Koung, the undisputed top scorer of the Olympic tournament with 185 points, could break the ice and claim the first point for the group coached by Kim Hyung-Sil.

South Korea gradually found their way in the game but Japan still enjoyed a margin of three by the first technical time-out.

Kim gradually started her personal show but the score remained very close as both teams were displaying their well-known excellence in defence thereby making it quite difficult for their opponent to score.

Japan finally claimed a very slim lead 21-19, but Kim helped South Korea to tie at 21-all. South Korea contested a decision of the first referee that eventually assigned the provisional 22-21 to Japan and another fault, this time for crossing the 3m line while spiking from the back row, whistled to Kim, brought three set balls to the count of Japan, with Sakoda cashing the second opportunity for the 1-0 (25-22).

Japan dominate the court at the second set to started out brilliantly 5-0 and led all along the way to 18-15, when the deciding phases of the set were approaching. Both teams evidently felt some tension and fatigue as they committed a few mistakes.

However, Kim was not able to compensate for the lack of consistency showed by her teammates, and Sakoda could pile up three set balls for Japan. The South Koreans fought back to 24 all before Sakoda spiked for the 25-24 and the 2-0 was ultimately sealed via a South Korean error.

The third set saw the teams tie the score at 7 and traded blows, when Japan took the lead for the first time at 14-13 and pushed the advantage to 24-20 with strong determination. It's Sakoda made the dream of a whole nation come true with a kill to take the match 25-21.

The defending champion Brazil and the world No.1, the United States, are to replay the women's volleyball final of the Beijing 2008 in London later.