I suppose this could be labelled a quick-set, because there isn't a lot of information to give. The last week of the World League's preliminary round had just three fixtures, which decided the final two teams in the finals (which start tomorrow — yeah, is this maybe a little late coming up). There wasn't much suspense.
Poland and Bulgaria took the stage first. Both sides needed a win to shore up their chances of moving on. Bulgaria made things academic with their (25-21, 25-21, 25-21) win. The loss on Poland's part officially eliminated them from contention, but it didn't quite qualify Bulgaria. The Americans still had a slender path to advancement.
Over in Group B, Germany needed to win both nights against Iran, and in less than 5 sets both nights, in order to advance ahead of the Russians. So when Iran won (25-19, 25-18, 25-20) on night one, it made night two unimportant with regards to who moved on. It was sealed that it would indeed be Russia.
With the United States' four-set loss to Brazil, final of (25-22, 25-18, 20-25, 28-26), Bulgaria officially moved on.
Night two matchups for all three fixtures were therefore glorified exhibition matches. Poland extended the Bulgarians to five sets on night two, but still lost, by (20-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-21, 19-17). The Bulgarians did not sit their starters, nor did the Brazilians in their (25-21, 26-24, 25-23) second night sweep against the Americans, relegating them to fifth in their pool. Four wins for the USA team are still enough to keep them from having to play next year's qualifier, though. That'll be Japan and Cuba who have to defend their places, with just three wins and one win, respectively. It's already been announced that Belgium will be the CEV representatives in next year's World League challenger. The representatives for AVC, CAVB, and the joint NORCECA/CSV representative are not known, and may not be for several months. Completing the first round of the 2013 World League was a three-set sweep for the Germans against Iran, ending the competition for both teams.
The finals set up with two three-team pools determining who will play for the medals. The top two from each pool go into a cross-over match with the alternate team from the other pool (Pool D 1st place plays Pool E 2nd place, and vice versa), with the wnners of those matches facing each other for the World League championship. The losers of those matches will face each other for the bronze medal, while the third-place teams in each pool play a classification match for fifth and sixth places. Here are the pools:
Pool D
Argentina
Italy
Bulgaria
Pool E
Brazil
Canada
Russia
Each pool plays one match for the next three days before the finals on Saturday and Sunday. With no beach tournament to conflict, it'll be nice to give this my full attention this week.
Simply put, World League season all comes down to this. Should be a great last few days.
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