Three teams vie for the last remaining ticket to London while tournament honours still on the line

All the roads lead to Yoyogi National Stadium on Friday where some fascinating volleyball matches will take place as part of the icing on the cake for what has been a phenomenal 2011 FIVB Women’s World Cup, the first Olympic qualifier which grants three tickets to the London Games.

Defending champions Italy and World Grand Prix double monarchs United States have already captured the first two of three berths available in the competition for next year’s Olympic Games with the remaining third spot still up for grabs with three teams - China, Japan and Germany - still in with a chance to claim it.

Women’s World Cup Results/Standings, Match Info, Photos or Live Scoring

Meanwhile, tournament leaders USA and second placed Italy have a private battle for the tournament crown with the world No. 2 Americans in search of their first title and Italy looking for back-to-back honours.

The first match of the day sees Italy as host favourites to beat winless Kenya and the three points in play could mean the second title for the defending champions who saw their streak of 20 consecutive victories in the event come to an end at the hands of United States on Thursday.

Meaning the eventual outcome of the last match of the tournament - Japan against USA – will determine the overall winner. Italy’s 25 points are second to the American side’s 26 with both teams with the same 9-1 win-loss record. The team of Massimo Barbolini leads 3-0 in their head to head matches with Kenya and it likely will be 4-0 at the end of the day.

In the second match of the day, a victory of China over Germany will translate into an Olympic berth for the three-time World Cup champions as the Chinese would move from 23 points to at least 25 - unreachable for the Japan team, currently in fourth position with 21 points.

Germany’s hopes suffered a terrible blow with the five-set loss to Japan on Thursday but they are still alive and need some outside help to realize their Olympic dream. With 20 points to their account, the team of Giovanni Guidetti is forced to win 3-0 or 3-1 and then hope for a USA victory over Japan in the nightcap. The last time these two sides were pitted together it was a real battle won by China in five sets at home in Guangzhou during the preliminary phase of the 2011 FIVB World Grand Prix. History suggests an uphill road for Germany as China leads 20-3 in their all-time contests.

According to coach Hugh McCutcheon, USA are playing better volleyball than a year ago and the New Zealand native also thinks they are a better team now which is bad news for Japan or anybody clashing with the Americans. After pocketing the Olympic ticket on Thursday, the US have extra motivation in the match against Japan as one more victory will mean their first gold medal at the World Cup after finishing third in the past two editions. “If we can play well in serve and reception and if we can side-out we can play with anybody,” the usually polite McCutcheon said after Thursday’s convincing win over Italy.

The two teams have a long history of head to head matches with USA having the edge 25-20. The Americans won 3-0 the last time they faced each other in the Finals of the 2011 World Grand Prix in Macau, but when these teams met in the bronze medal match at Yoyogi Stadium at the 2010 Women’s World Championship it was the home side who prevailed in a five-set marathon.

At Tokyo Metropolitan Stadium
Algeria v Serbia
The first match of the day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Stadium has Algeria playing Serbia with the European champions, currently in seventh place with 15 points and a 4-6 win-loss record, expected to collect three more points. The two teams twice have faced each other with the same results in favour of Serbia. Coach Zoran Terzic praised the attitude of his team as they convincingly defeated Argentina in straight sets. “We used our brains much more than Wednesday,” Terzic stated. And commenting on their last match of the tournament he said: “I am very sure we will finish the competition with one more victory.” It will be another learning maturing experience for the young Algerians who booked their only victory of the event by defeating Kenya in the battle between African teams.

Dominican Republic v Brazil
It has been a marathon tournament for the Dominican Republic team as the NORCECA vice champions have played a total of 39 sets, only second to China’s 40. Nevertheless the Dominicans have enjoyed happy endings in all their three five-setters including Thursday’s victory over Korea when tournament leading scorer Bethania De la Cruz (217 points) added another 31 to her personal account. History favours Brazil, a team that has played 38 sets, as the Olympic champions have won their twelve FIVB official matches between the two sides. At the continental level, the South American side won their two contests of this year first at the Pan American Cup gold medal match in Juarez, Mexico (3-0) and then at the Pan American Games (3-1) last month in Guadalajara, Mexico. One of the keys for Brazil will be, according to their coach Ze Roberto, trying to stop the hard-hitting De la Cruz.

Argentina v Korea
This is a battle for the ninth place as just one point separates the two sides in the standings. Argentina is positioned in the ninth position with nine points and was the victim of inconsistency in the match against Serbia when their usual defence and reception was not up to par. The Korean team showed a lot of character battling back to force a fifth set against the Dominican Republic after falling behind 2-0. “We have to pull together and be at our best to have a chance against Korea,” Argentina’s top scorer Lucia Fresco said. The Koreans have won their three all-time matches with the most recent at this year’s FIVB World Grand Prix when the Asian side triumphed 3-0 at Zielona Gora, Poland during the Preliminary Round.

MATCH RESULTS / STANDING - 4th round

Tokyo (Site A)

No	Date	Teams	Set	Result per set (points)					Total Points	Time	Audience
No	Date	Teams	Set	1	2	3	4	5	Total Points	Time	Audience
49	16-Nov	CHN-USA	2-3	21-25	29-31	25-18	25-19	10-15	110-108	2:10	1'500
50	16-Nov	ITA-GER	3-2	22-25	22-25	25-21	25-13	15-13	109-97	2:10	3'000
51	16-Nov	JPN-KEN	3-0	25-11	25-10	25-9			75-30	1:10	8'000
55	17-Nov	CHN-KEN	3-0	25-7	25-15	25-10			75-32	0:59	1'100
56	17-Nov	ITA-USA	1-3	23-25	15-25	25-22	21-25		84-97	1:45	4'500
57	17-Nov	JPN-GER	3-2	25-20	23-25	25-27	25-17	15-12	113-101	2:28	10'000
61	18-Nov	ITA-KEN
62	18-Nov	CHN-GER
63	18-Nov	JPN-USA

Tokyo (Site B)

No	Date	Teams	Set	Result per set (points)					Total Points	Time	Audience
No	Date	Teams	Set	1	2	3	4	5	Total Points	Time	Audience
52	16-Nov	DOM-SRB	3-2	14-25	19-25	25-23	25-22	15-12	98-107	1:59	700
53	16-Nov	ALG-KOR	0-3	17-25	21-25	15-25			53-75	1:12	850
54	16-Nov	ARG-BRA	0-3	20-25	19-25	9-25			48-75	1:15	1'000
58	17-Nov	DOM-KOR	3-2	25-19	25-17	26-28	21-25	15-12	112-101	2:13	750
59	17-Nov	ALG-BRA	0-3	18-25	8-25	13-25			39-75	1:05	850
60	17-Nov	ARG-SRB	0-3	15-25	18-25	23-25			56-75	1:11	950
64	18-Nov	ALG-SRB
65	18-Nov	DOM-BRA
66	18-Nov	ARG-KOR