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

  0 Wendy Mayer | June 07th, 2017 | News

2017 FIVB World League – Pool E1 Preview

·         June 9-11, 2017

·         Varna, Bulgaria

·         Live results

·         Week 1 points leaders

Schedule

Date Time Home Away
9-Jun 9:10 a.m. ET Canada Brazil
9-Jun 12:10 a.m. ET Bulgaria Poland
10-Jun 9:40 a.m. ET Brazil Poland
10-Jun 1:40 p.m. ET Canada Bulgaria
11-Jun 9:40 a.m. ET Poland Canada
11-Jun 1:40 p.m. ET Brazil Bulgaria

 

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
France
3 3 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 9 9 1 9.000 249 203 1.226
2
Belgium
3 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 7 8 4 2.000 284 258 1.100
3
Brazil ***
3 2 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 7 8 5 1.600 288 277 1.039
4
Serbia
3 2 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 6 6 5 1.200 254 248 1.024
5
Poland ***
3 2 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 5 7 6 1.166 293 276 1.061
6
Canada ***
3 2 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 4 7 7 1.000 302 307 0.983
7
Russia
3 1 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 4 6 6 1.000 264 254 1.039
8
Italy
3 1 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 3 5 6 0.833 243 255 0.952
9
Bulgaria ***
3 1 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 3 5 8 0.625 269 293 0.918
10
Iran
3 1 2 0 1 0 0 1 1 3 4 7 0.571 248 264 0.939
11
Argentina
3 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 3 8 0.375 226 258 0.875
12
USA
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.”

 

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About Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer

Wendy Mayer has worked in athletics media relations for the last 20 years. The Northwest Missouri State alumna is currently senior writer for Volleymob.com after spending the last 15 years with Purdue athletics.

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