Local teams will be marching clueless when they battle Kobe Shinwa Women’s University in the final round of the Belo Philippine Superliga Invitational Conference starting Thursday at the FilOil Flying V Center in San Juan.
Seasoned coaches Shaq Delos Santos of Petron and George Pascua of Cignal admitted they have not scouted the fancied Japanese squad, which will serve as the fourth team in the race to the crown of this prestigious club tourney bankrolled by Asics, Mikasa, Senoh and Mueller with TV5 as official broadcast partner.
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 it plays.
“All I know is that it plays Japanese brand of volleyball to perfection,” said Pascua, who called the shots for Petron when it tangled with Japanese powerhouse Hisamitsu Springs in the AVC Asian Women’s Club Championship in Phu Ly, Vietnam in 2015.
“Other than that, we have no idea on how it plays. 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 Tuesday.”
Even a veteran international campaigner in Moro Branislav of Foton admitted that facing Kobe Shinwa would be a major challenge, especially after they lost star spiker Dindin Manabat to knee injury.
