USA's last eight matches at the world championships have resulted as follows: W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L
Head-to-Head
• These teams have met six times at the world championship. United States won the first two in 1966 and 1982, but Italy won the last four, in 1998 (2), 2006 and 2010.
• At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Italy defeated USA 3-0 in the quarterfinal.
• Their most recent meeting at a major tournament came at the 2014 World League Finals. Again, Italy won in straight sets, but USA ended up winning the gold medal while Italy took bronze.
Italy
• Italy have lost two of their four matches in 2014, the same as their total defeats in their nine matches in 2010.
• They have lost four of their last six matches at the world championships.
• Italy have lost one or more sets in each of their last 11 matches at the world championships. They had run of 12 matches in which they lost at least one set in 1966-1970.
United States
• USA's last eight matches at the world championships have resulted as follows: W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L.
• They have won two and lost two of their first four matches in Poland, whereas they began their 2014 World League by winning their first seven matches en route to the title.
• They have won 13 of their 34 matches against other (former) world championship winners.