World League roundup – week 5

Let's get caught up on World League before it's back to the beach.

I wrote up about half of last week's fixtures, believing the other half would be pretty much akin to that which I watched personally. I was wrong.

We'll start our recap in Group A. One fixture I didn't write up was Brazil/France. I actually haven't yet seen any of Brazil's matches in this tournament, though I suppose I will for their Week 7 two-fer with the Americans. I just didn't think they really were bound to be challenged much in the group stage.

Well, they were challenged this past week, against France. Night one was a five-set thriller, going to the Brazilians by a count of (25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 15-12). Ricardo Lucarelli led the scoring for Brazil with 16 kills and 21 total points, while the somewhat hit-or-miss Earvin Ngapeth led all scorers for France with 20 and 24 respectively. Both teams used pretty regular substitution patterns, something I haven't seen a lot of in this tournament. And Kevin Tillie saw his first action of the tournament, subbing in briefly during set 2.

Then on night 2, France turned what has to be thought of as an upset, but maybe not as colossal an upset as you may think at first blush. They won night two by a (29-27, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19) count. I'm told that the Brazilians had major trouble siding out in this game, particularly in the final frame. It's interesting to note that the French team used much more sparing subs in this match (none at all in set 4), which certainly suggests they settled into their pattern quite comfortably in the final stanza. The same two players led the scoring for their respective sides, as Ngapeth again topped all with 22 kills.

After an 0-4 start with weekend sweeps to Bulgaria and USA, France have far too many losses on the board to be at all competitive in terms of the whole tourney, but they've got about the best 3-5 you could hope for, and have certainly done enough to avoid next year's qualifiers. Their tournament concludes this weekend as they face Argentina. Brazil will host Bulgaria, who are actually the leaders of Group A right now.

And that's because after the motley match USA and Bulgaria played on night one of their series, Bulgaria got their acts together on night two. They won (25-20, 18-25, 25-23, 25-21), all but confirming their presence in Argentina for the medal round in a few weeks' time. Both teams used their benches very sparingly in this one, with the Americans using just two substitutions the whole night and the Bulgarians five. It was a notably difficult match for USA middle blocker Max Holt, who had just four kills and two blocks spread out over four sets. Matt Anderson led the way in scoring for the Americans with 13 kills and 16 total points, but the Bulgarians were just flat out better on every front. Tsvetan Sokolov topped their account with 16 kills and 21 total points, as he notched five blocks and was the only player over two in that area.

The Bulgarians now control their own destiny, and are in very strong shape to be in the finals in Argentina. Strictly speaking, the Americans also control their own destiny, but they'll have to march into Poland and Brazil and do nothing but win in order to control their fate, and that's a really tall ask. It is the Poles who await them this week.

Poland are doing their best to salvage something from this World League season, but after the hole they started off in, the final result in defence of their championship from last year is guaranteed to be a pretty dismal failure. This week, they took two from the reeling Argentinians, in five sets on night one and in four sets on night two. They have no chance of making the medal round, but have the opportunity to play spoilers against USA and Bulgaria over the next two weekends. Argentina coach Javier Weber, who saw his men lose set advantages on both nights, had a rather pointed critique, saying "We have to learn how to play that well for longer than an hour." Host nation exemption fast-tracks them to the finals, where I hope they'll play better than they have been. This is now 7 straight losses for them.

As for Group B, the short answer is everybody went 1-1 last week. After their historic win over the Italians on night one between the two teams, the Iranians came about as close as possible to making it two wins in as many times of asking (without actually doing it). Italy weathered the storm and survived on night two by a final count of (25-22, 25-20, 20-25, 18-25, 15-13). Another one of those weird ones where the team who lost the match actually scored more points. It was another display of blocking prowess, was this match, as the highest kill figures belonged to Ivan Zaytsev, who had 17. That's a pretty low total to be leading the way in a five-set match. The Iranians had 16 team blocks, led by Seyed Mousavi with 10 by himself (which was Italy's team total). Both sides served very well, too, as the Italians had 11 aces on the night to nine for Iran. The pin hitting was pretty unremarkable, though (a known weakness for the Iranians). The Italian team and their coach saw the result as no less than redemption itself after the night one loss.

Iran head to Cuba this weekend and Italy to Serbia.

In Cuba, the home team won their first match of World League on night two against Russia, rebounding from the first-night sweep to post a (25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 25-22) victory. The young Cuban core of Yordan Bisset, Rolando Cepeda, Abrahan Alfonso, and Isbel Mesa got it right on night two against the frankly a little one-dimensional Russians. Cepeda is the oldest of these four players, at the ripe old age of 24, so the future is a nice one for this group. There's little doubt they'll have to defend their place in World League ahead of next year's tourney, though. For the Russians in this match, Nikolay Pavlov led all individual scorers with 19 kills, but didn't have a single block as that area of the game was sorely lacking for them. I'm now quite unconvinced that they'll make any noise in the medal round. They're still in great shape to make it, and perhaps one or both of their top men will be back then, but even if so they may be a little rusty. No longer seeing a championship team here at all. The Russians head to Germany this weekend.

Germany and Serbia played a generally pretty inconsequential double shot between themselves last week, with the visiting Germans winning in four on night one and the homestanding Serbs the victors on night two in a full five sets. The Serbs were of course quite happy to get a win on home soil, but it really amounts to little more than that. Even with their respective missteps this past week, the Italians and the Russians are still well in line to move on. I don't see either of them doing enough against the Russians and Italians directly this week to cause any trouble.

Group C, having started first, near their conclusion first. The Dutch team look like they're going to make the finals, as they have a point in hand over the Canadians. They posted back-to-back four set wins over Korea this weekend, keeping pace as Canada had their way with the Finns. In addition to the match I wrote up, the Canadians also won a four-setter to open the two-night encounter between the two sides.

That makes the situation for this week pretty simple. The Dutch team head to Finland. If they win both, and aren't extended to five sets both nights, they're in to the finals. If they are extended to five both nights, or if they lose one or both of the matches, then the Canadians' results against Japan will come into account. Essentially, any Canada loss will rule them out. They need to win twice, in no more than four sets both nights, and have the Dutch team open the door for them. The odds aren't great but the scenario does exist.

The two-fer between Portugal and Japan this past weekend was Portugal's fourth straight results split, as they won night one in four sets before losing night two in a full five. Portugal have been the revelation of the tournament for me so far. They won't have to worry about the qualifiers for next year at all, and it may not be too long before they pose a threat to the very very big teams in the world and have the opportunity to win more than just matches in this tourney. They'll close out their World League campaign this week at home against Korea.

Week 6 fixtures

Group A

Bulgaria @ Brazil
USA @ Poland
France @ Argentina

Group B

Russia @ Germany
Iran @ Cuba
Italy @ Serbia

Group C

Netherlands @ Finland
Canada @ Japan
Korea @ Portugal