and since the animated inarizaki match will be animated pretty soon... let me just do a little half-assed appreciation thread breaking down what happened in the iconic 281 inarizaki play that led to this!

the play that preceded it was a block from tsukishima, and while akagi was ready to dig the ball, atsumu set it to osamu at first touch while he was in mid-jump. at this point, it was pretty clear that they wanted to score off the second touch through the element of surprise.

however, tsukishima read this play and osamu noticed it. given that he wouldnt be able to land a clean spike with a blocker like tsukishima in front of him, there were several options to consider: pull off a rebound, a feint, or a block-out. he did none of those three.

instead, he used the momentum of his arm swing to set the ball back to the left side of the court. judging by the motion of tsukishima's arms, osamu was obviously successful at luring karasuno into thinking he was going to spike the ball.

and waiting for the ball was aran who spiked it from the back row. considering that daichi was guarding the left side of the court while osamu had tsukishima and asahi preoccupied in the right side, the setup was perfect for a pipe since the middle was left open.

(or so they thought.)

every time i reread this chapter i get so thrilled because this play was just magnificent. even the captain of japan's men's national team—yanagida masahiro himself—agrees! it really shows how dynamic inarizaki is as a team (such a shame they didnt score off it LMAO).