After Sunday’s matches in Italy and Bulgaria for the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship, Belgium, Netherlands, the USA, Serbia, Bulgaria and Finland have all clinched their spots in the second round with their victories on Sunday. So with two more days of play in the first round, there are four spots remaining in the second round for eight teams. We’ll now go through scenarios for pool positions and second round berths on Monday, September 17th.
Pool A
Italy (4-0, 12 points) and Belgium (2-2, 7 points) have clinched a berth and will not play on Monday, September 17th.
Italy will clinch first place in the pool with:
- Slovenia LOSS vs. Argentina. Italy will have a better sets ratio if Slovenia losses in 5 sets (if tied on wins and points).
Slovenia
- A Slovenia WIN vs. Argentina will guarantee that they will finish second or better in the pool.
Belgium
- An Argentina LOSS vs. Slovenia will guarantee that Belgium will finish third in the pool. Belgium is already 1 win and 4 points ahead of Argentina and if they tie on wins Argentina cannot match on points.
An Argentina WIN vs. Slovenia WILL NOT CLINCH their position on Monday. If Argentina beat Slovenia 3-0, Argentina will have be at 8-6 on sets wins to losses. If Japan sweeps Argentina 3-0 on Tuesday both teams could be tied at 8-9 and then points ratios would determine the last berth in Pool A. If Argentina beat Slovenia 3-1, Japan could possibly overtake in a sweep of Argentina on Tuesday.
Pool B
France (2-2, 8 points) have clinched a berth and will not play on Monday.
Canada (3-0, 9 points) will win the pool with:
- WIN vs. Brazil IN <4 SETS. Canada will have a points advantage (12-11) over the Netherlands if tied on 4 wins.
Netherlands (3-1, 8 points)
- Will clinch at least third place in the pool with a WIN vs. Egypt.
- If Canada also beats Brazil, then Netherlands will clinch at least second place.
Brazil will clinch a berth with the following:
- Netherlands WIN 2 SETS vs. Egypt (Brazil will have sets ratio advantage even if Egypt win in 5, if tied on wins and points)
- OR Brazil WIN 2 SETS vs. Canada (Brazil will have sets ratio advantage even if Egypt win in 5 if tied on wins and points)
Egypt is eliminated with a loss vs. the Netherlands.
Pool C
USA (4-0, 10 points) and Serbia (3-1, 10 points) have both clinched a berth and will not play on Monday.
Russia (2-1, 6 points) will clinch a berth in the second round:
- WIN 2 SETS vs. Cameroon. A WIN vs. Cameroon will clinch at least third place in the pool.
- If Russia lose to Cameroon, Russia will still likely have a sets ratio advantage (only need 1 set against Serbia on Tuesday) and points ratio advantage over Cameroon.
- They would need a Tunisia LOSS vs. Australia to clinch.
Australia (2-2, 4 points) will clinch a berth in the second with the following:
- Cameroon LOSS IN <5 SETS vs. Russia
- AND WIN vs. Tunisia (any amount of sets)
Cameroon and Tunisia will both be eliminated with losses.
Pool D
Poland (3-0, 9 points) and Iran (3-0, 9 points) will play each other on Monday, with the winner, likely being the winner of the pool. There is still one more match for each team to play on Tuesday Poland vs. Bulgaria and Iran vs. Finland. Bulgaria (3-1, 9 points) and Finland (2-2, 5 points) will not play on Monday but both teams have clinched their berths in the second round.
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