FIVB World League: Poland Faces Brazil Again in Pool E1 After Five-Set Upset on Day 1

2017 FIVB World League – Pool E1 Preview

·         June 9-11, 2017

·         Varna, Bulgaria

·         Live results

·         Week 1 points leaders

Schedule

Rankings

Rank	Teams	Matches				Result Details						Sets			Points
		Total	Won	Lost	3-0	3-1	3-2	2-3	1-3	0-3	Points	Won	Lost	Ratio	Won	Lost	Ratio
1		3	3	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	9	9	1	9.000	249	203	1.226
2		3	2	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	7	8	4	2.000	284	258	1.100
3		3	2	1	0	2	0	1	0	0	7	8	5	1.600	288	277	1.039
4		3	2	1	0	2	0	0	0	1	6	6	5	1.200	254	248	1.024
5		3	2	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	5	7	6	1.166	293	276	1.061
6		3	2	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	4	7	7	1.000	302	307	0.983
7		3	1	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	4	6	6	1.000	264	254	1.039
8		3	1	2	1	0	0	0	2	0	3	5	6	0.833	243	255	0.952
9		3	1	2	0	0	1	1	0	1	3	5	8	0.625	269	293	0.918
10		3	1	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	3	4	7	0.571	248	264	0.939
11		3	1	2	0	0	1	0	0	2	2	3	8	0.375	226	258	0.875
12		3	0	3	0	0	0	1	2	0	1	4	9	0.444	277	304	0.911

Notes: Brazil, host of the Final 6, highlighted in blue. *** denotes teams playing in Group E1.

Preview

After the first weekend, Brazil is ranked third with seven points, after posting a 2-1 record.  The 2016 Olympic Gold medalists, under new leadership in Renan dal Zotto, dropped their opening match of the tournament, falling 3-2 to Poland on June 2. Evandro M Guerra scored 22 points and Ricardo Lucarelli Souza added 18 but it was not enough to overcome 30 miscues in the match.

The Brazilians bounced back with four set wins over Iran and Italy with Guerra and Souza leading the way and the team cutting down on miscues in each match (24 vs. Iran; 18 vs. Italy). Guerra was the leading scorer in Round 1 with 68 points.

“Most of all, I am happy about the visible evolution of my team,” Dal Zotto said after the Italy match. “We must build up self-confidence and we need to put in practice what we do during the trainings.”

That continued evolution will be key as the Brazilian side faces off with upset-minded teams Poland and Canada, which made it through the opening round at 2-1, awaiting in the next round.

In addition to upsetting Brazil (3-2), Poland downed Italy in four sets, but could not keep up the momentum, falling to Iran in four after winning the opening set 25-18. That defeat, however, may be the difference moving forward as the team looks to stay tuned in throughout the matches.

“Maybe we underestimated the match and we suffered the most loss after two important victories against Brazil and Italy,” Rafal Buskey said. “Now we need to think about the following matches trying to keep focused.”

Team Canada managed a pair of five-set wins, downing Belgium and the United States, before falling to Serbia 3-1 in the B1 finale. The Canadians are making their first foray into Group 1 play in 2017 after winning Group 2 in 2016.

“I am satisfied with overall performance in this tournament,” Canadian coach Stephane Antiga said after the loss. “In the end, we have already grown as a team and I expect us to be much better in the future matches.

Bulgaria struggled against France (3-0) and Argentina (3-2) before finishing off Pool C1 play with a five-setter over Russia. Tsvetan Sokolov was the one consistent player for the Bulgarians, leading the team in scoring each match, including 29 points against Argentina.

“We wanted to win very much and to stay in the pool. Our performance was poor at the beginning. Russia led the match, we had nothing to respond with,” Bulgarian coach Plamen Konstantinov said. “We changed the style into the power game. We risked more and blocked better and every player contributed to the victory.”