USA end Poland's winning streak

The Americans, who finished in third place of Pool D in the first round with a total of 4 points, gained three valuable points to start the second phase of the competition in Pool E off on the right foot. Poland remained with 9 points.

In the closest battle on Wednesday, Canada edged Cuba in a match of five sets between rivals of NORCECA Confederation in Pool F at Centennial Hall in Wroclaw. The score line was 25-27, 25-18, 23-25, 25-11, 15-13.

In the other matches, in Pool E, Serbia blanked Italy (25-19, 29-27, 25-22), France defeated Argentina 3-1 (20-25, 25-17, 29-27, 25-18), and Iran won also 3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 25-17) over Australia. The other three matches of Pool F concluded with 3-0 scores with Russia crushing Finland (25-10, 25-18, 25-16) and Brazil and Germany defeating Bulgaria  (25-15, 25-21, 25-21) and China(25-19, 25-22, 25-17), respectively.

The positions after one day in the second round are the following:

Pool E: France (3-1, 10 points), Poland 3-1, 9), Serbia (3-1, 9), Iran (3-1, 8), United States (2-2, 7), Argentina (1-3, 3), Italy (1-3, 2) and Australia (0-4, 0).

Pool F: Brazil (4-0, 12 points), Russia (4-0, 11), Germany (3-1, 9), Canada (3-1, 7), Bulgaria (1-3, 5), Finland (1-3, 2), Cuba (0-4, 2), China (0-4, 0).

Serbia began their second round campaign in excellent shape with a convincing triumph over Italy 3-0 (25-19, 29-27, 25-22) to improve to 9 points. 

Aleksandar Atanasijevic topped Serbia with 18 points, joined by Nikola Kovacevic who added 12. Italy, unable to count with their bomber Ivan Zaytsev, were led by Luca Vettori’s 13 kills, while Simone Buti contributed with 5 stuff blocks and a total of 10 points.

A consistent USA team handed Poland their first defeat of the competition by claiming an extremely close 3-1 victory (29-27, 25-22, 25-27, 25-23) in front of a big crowd at Atlas Arena. The Americans increased their point-total to 7 while Poland’s remained at 9.

Taylor Sander and Matthew Anderson teamed up to form again a tremendous duo as they drilled 23 and 21 points respectively, while Maxwell Holt supported them with 15 of his own. On Poland’s side, Mariusz Wlazly was the most active scorer with 17 shots, backed up by Michal Winiarski who contributed with 14. 

France asserted its dominance over Argentina 3-1 (20-25, 25-17, 29-27, 25-18) in the opening clash of Pool E. The winners increased to 10 points after keeping seven from the first round.

France’s Earvin Ngapeth topped five French scorers in double digits with 21 points closely followed by Antonin Rouzier with 18. Nicolas Le Goff, Nicolas Marechal and Kevin Le Roux finished with 14, 13 and 11, respectively.

Argentina’s Sebastian Sole was the top scorer for the defeated side with 12 points while Facundo Conte was held to 10 tallies. 

Iran prevailed over Asian Confederation counterparts Australia in a four-setter (25-23, 25-21, 21-25, 25-17) to avail of their first win in the second round. 

Amir Ghafour top scored for Iran with 22 points, including four blocks and one ace, while Farhad Ghaemi added 15 in the win. Australia’s Thomas Edgar scored an equal output as Ghafour. 

Olympic champions Russia outclassed Finland in straight sets (25-10, 25-18, 25-16) in Pool F. The Russians improved to 11 points with a 4-0 win-loss record, including the stats accumulated in the first round against qualified teams. Finland fell to 1-3 with two points.

Russia outscored Finland in blocks (11-2) and aces (6-0) as they dominated their opponents, who only sporadically showed glimpses of their playing ability, from start to finish. Dmitry Ilinykh led Russia with 16 points, twelve via spikes, while towering Dmitriy Muserskiy contributed 13 points, including four blocks and two aces. Nikolay Apalikov and Nikolay Pavlov chipped in with 12 and 10, respectively. 

Canada prevailed over Cuba in nail-biting five-setter (25-27, 25-18, 23-25, 25-11, 15-13). The Canadians raised their point-total to seven while Cuba’s slightly increased to two for the second round.

Key points

Dallas Soonias and Nicholas Hoag topped the winners’ scoring with 17 and 16 points, respectively, while John Gordon Perrin and Fred Winters contributed 13 and 10 points.  Cuba’s Rolando Cepeda tallied 17 followed by Javier Jimenez with 14. Osmany Uriarte (13) and Isbel Mesa (10) also reached double digits.

Both left and right wing-spikers Ricardo Lucarelli and Wallace De Souza led Brazil to their first victory in the second round 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-21) over Bulgaria. The two Brazilian big guns scored 13 and 14 points, respectively, helping their team to score a fast win. 

 Brazil gained three more points to be added to the 9 points they carried over from the first round to improve to 4-0 with 12 points in Pool F, while Bulgaria dropped to 1-3 with 5 points. Playing well in spike and keeping right passing, Brazil were able to overcome the opponent in straight sets even when Bulgaria battled in the second and third sets. 

Germany started off the second round on the right foot by claiming a straight-set win against China (25-19, 25-22, 25-17).  The victory improved Germany's win- loss ratio in Pool F to 3-1 and raised their points to 9 to stay in the third position following Brazil (12) and Russia (11), while China dropped to 0-4 (0 points).

György Grozer with 17 points led Germany's scorers followed by Sebastian Scwarz with 10. Weijun Zhong was China's top scorer with 10 points while Zhi Yuan finished with nine in the loss.

Germany controlled the game throughout the whole match by their advantage in spiking and building efficient blocks, while making many mistakes China, weren’t able to break the opponent’s power.