WATCH LIVE: France/Brazil Open Grand Champions Cup With WL Rematch

2017 WORLD GRAND CHAMPIONS CUP

• Women – September 5-9
• Men – September 12-17
• Nagoya and Osaka, Japan
• Women – Schedule/Results
• Men – Schedule
• Power Rankings

France and Brazil will open up the men’s portion of the 2017 FIVB World Grand Champions Cup in their first ever meeting at the event – however, it will be a recount of this year’s World League Finals in which France took the win. Brazil is the defending champions of the event, with France making their World Grand Champions Cup debut.

Aside from the inaugural year of the event in 1993, France could become the first debutants to take the title, as they have some momentum rolling in their favor from the World League title. However, though, France struggled at the European Championships, losing in the quarterfinals.

The Frenchmen will be without their superstar, Earvin N’gapeth at the tournament due to an injury. Complications with this injury began to flare up at the European Championships, causing him to not play at his fullest potential. N’gapeth sat out for most of the World League this year, but eased back into the game the final week and came out swinging during the finals to pick up the MVP honors. The French will have a number of other key contributors including, Julien Lyneel, Kevin Le Roux, Stephen Boyer and Benjamin Toniutti.

Brazil has won four of the previous six editions of the World Grand Champions Cup, falling only in the inaugural 1993 season and 2001. In total, Brazil has lost only three of their 30 matches at the event, with all three losses coming in five sets. The Brazilians bring back some strong players for the event in Wallace de Souza, Bruno Mossa Rezende and Ricardo Lucarelli Souza.

The match is set to begin at 12:40 PM local time, while airing at 11:40 PM U.S. East Coast Time or 3:40 GMT

Editor’s note: Video not made available in the United States. If you are not in the United States, but an error in YouTube’s geolocation service is still blocking your access, you can use a program like TunnelBear to redirect to the proper country.