2017 FIVB WORLD LEAGUE – Round 2, DAY 1 SUMMARY

Group 1 Table After Day 4:

Matches Pts Sets Points Rank Team W L W L Ratio W L Ratio 1 France 4 0 12 12 2 6.000 346 279 1.240 2 Brazil 3 1 10 11 6 1.833 386 367 1.052 3 Serbia 3 1 9 9 5 1.800 329 311 1.058 4 Belgium 2 2 8 10 7 1.429 385 370 1.041 5 Poland 2 2 6 9 9 1.000 396 381 1.039 6 Bulgaria 2 2 5 8 10 0.800 375 396 0.947 7 Iran 2 2 5 7 9 0.778 359 365 0.984 8 Canada 2 2 4 8 10 0.800 393 405 0.970 9 Russia 1 3 4 7 9 0.778 340 351 0.969 10 United States 1 3 4 7 9 0.778 352 372 0.946 11 Italy 1 3 3 5 9 0.556 311 330 0.942 12 Argentina 1 3 2 3 11 0.273 289 334 0.865

Ranking system:

Number of matches won Match points Sets ratio Points ratio If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority will be given to the team which won the last match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2 and 3 will be made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.

Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser

Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser

A surprising French team, who is playing this year’s World League without their best offensive weapon Earvin Ngapeth, remained undefeated on Friday to open the second of three weekends of play, beating Russia 3-1. Each of France’s 4 wins so far in the tournament has been by a 3-0 or 3-1 margin, leaving them with the maximum 12 points thus far.

France now moves forward to play an Italian team that is suddenly floundering, with only 1 win in their first 4. Italy has an Olympic pedigree, but are playing without a significant portion of the roster that won them silver last year. The two teams actually have 2 more matchups, one this weekend and one next in Belgium. France is 2 wins away from sealing a spot in the Final 6 (they have games against Italy, the US, Italy, Canada, and Belgium). Italy already needs to be almost-perfect to claw back in to that final 6, so they’ll have their backs against the wall.

Serbia got back on track with a 3-0 sweep of Argentina, but their weekend gets tougher with matches against Argentina on Saturday and Belgium on Sunday. With both of those opponents at, or close, to Final 6 promotions themselves, the wins become even more significant for Serbia to seal their chance to defend their title in Brazil.

The Brazilians, after a slow start to the tournament, are back to looking like the Olympic champions they are. Even with pressure off thanks to an automatic bid to the finals, Brazil has stuck mostly to their superstars and came away on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Canada. That brings them in 2nd position back to a rematch with the defending World Champions, Poland, who beat Brazil in the tournament opener last weekend 3-2 – the only team to have beat Brazil so far in this year’s World League.

The biggest match remaining this weekend, now, will be Sunday’s matchup between Belgium and Serbia, who rank 4th and 3rd in the Group 1 table after Friday’s matches.

Day 4 Results (With Links to Full Stats)

Pool D1:

Venue:

All times are Iran Daylight Time (UTC+04:30).

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report 9 Jun 18:10 Serbia 3–0 Argentina 25–18 25–22 25–23 75–63 P2P3 9 Jun 21:10 Iran 3–2 Belgium 23–25 25–17 25–22 23–25 15–12 111–101 P2P3

Pool E1:

Venue:

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00).

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report 9 Jun 16:10 Canada 1–3 Brazil 25–23 20–25 22–25 23–25 90–98 P2P3 9 Jun 19:10 Bulgaria 3–2 Poland 25–16 20–25 19–25 25–23 16–14 105–103 P2P3

Pool F1:

Venue:

All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).

Date Time Score Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Total Report 9 Jun 17:30 Italy 0–3 United States 22–25 23–25 23–25 68–75 P2P3 9 Jun 20:30 France 3–1 Russia 25–12 22–25 25–21 25–18 97–76 P2P3

Day 4 Full Match Replays And Highlight Reels

Serbia def. Argentina 3-0

Iran def. Belgium 3-2

Brazil def. Canada 3-1

Bulgaria def. Poland 3-2

United States def. Italy 3-0

France def. Russia 3-1