Gearing up for World League – Team Italy

You know the drill by now. The rundown:

Egypt
Japan
Iran
Netherlands
South Korea
Finland
Canada
Italy
Argentina
Serbia
Russia
France
Brazil
Germany
Bulgaria
Cuba
USA
Poland

Here’s where it starts to get a little more interesting, because from here on out every team is in Pool A or B, meaning there’s a 50/50 shot rather than a 1-in-6 shot of their making the finals. We start off with the Italians, a team with a very strong history.Volleyball first came to Italy after the First World War, with a fascist-led precursor to the current Italian national federation forming in 1929. After the Second World War kicked the fascists out, the Federazione Italiana Pallavolo (FIPAV) was formed, holding their first male championship in 1946. FIPAV remain Italy’s governing body for volleyball. The subsequent decades saw the game become more and more popular over more of the country, and today it’s solidly third behind only soccer and water polo as Italy’s most popular team sports (according to numbers released by the Italian National Olympic Committee).

That success is due in large measure to the national team. They’ve medaled in four of the last five Olympics, with only a bronze medal loss to the Russians in Beijing in ’08 keeping it from being five straight. They also won all three world championship tourneys played in the decade of the ’90s (’90, ’94, and ’98) and have remained within striking distance of further world championships hardware, taking 5th twice and 4th in the subsequent tournaments. Lest we forget, in London, it was the Italians who eliminated the defending champions USA en route to Olympic bronze (a result echoed on the beach). It was considered to be a bit of an upset, since the Italians had only just qualified for the knockout stage by finishing 4th in their pool, but Italy are never to be taken lightly, that is to be sure. They were little match for eventual Olympic runners-up Brazil in the semifinals, but won an intense four-setter over Bulgaria to take home the bronze.

Italy is home to arguably (or maybe not too arguably) the best professional volleyball league on the planet on the men’s side at least, known as FIPAV Serie A1. Fifteen teams, composed of most of the best players the world over, play a round-robin regular season to determine who advances to a playoff system ending with one champion. There’s also a whole host of lesser leagues whose members can, under the classic European system of promotion and relegation, can either work their way up to Serie A1 or flame out entirely. The champions, runners-up, and third-place team of Serie A1 then advance to play the CEV Champions League, and Italy were winners there three years running from ’09 to ’11.

And nearly all members of the Italian national team play in Serie A1. One interesting exception is outside hitter Michał Łasko, who plays in Poland. If that name seems more Polish than Italian to you, it’s because it is — he was born there and his father Lech Łasko is a former Olympic champion in volleyball for Poland. Łasko is nonetheless an important contributor for Team Italy. Outside hitter, and Olympic floor captain, Cristian Savani is a deadly scoring option, and led all scorers in that big Italy/USA match at the last Olympics. Setter Dragan Travica draws mention as, along with Savani, one of the team’s best servers. Outside hitter Alessandro Fei is probably the team’s elder statesman, having to his name over 200 ‘caps’ with the national side.

Italy don’t really have any standouts in terms of blockers, and they have no particularly tall players (their tallest is “only” 6 foot 9, which if it’s above-average for top-level men’s international volleyball, it’s not by much), but they do have all-around team size. Most everyone on the squad is between 6’4″ and 6’9″. Only the liberos and secondary setter Dante Boninfante are shorter, so it paints them as a very versatile team. Italy are coached by Mauro Berruto, who formerly coached Finland.

So are we looking at a winner?

There’s not a doubt in my mind that they’ll advance to the finals. They’re in Pool B, with Iran, which, no disrespect meant, means they really only need to be top 3 of 5 rather than top 3 of 6. They should be solidly better than Germany and Serbia and possibly Cuba as well. Frankly, the only reason they’re popping up this early in the rundown (remember, it’s reverse order of last year’s standings) is because they didn’t send their best players to the World League last year, instead holding them back for the London Olympics. There’s really nothing to hold anyone back for this year. Expect Italy to come in strength and poise themselves as serious medal contenders.