FIVB World Championship Pool F recap.
The first round of the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) men’s Volleyball World Championship in Trieste, Italy concluded Monday. In Pool F, Germany eliminated Canada, and powerhouses, Serbia and Poland, met in the final game of the first round.
Germany went into the final game against Canada with a 0-2 record compared to Canada’s 1-1 record. Canada had upset Serbia on Sunday, and was looking to continue their success, but Germany beat the Canucks 3-0 (27-25, 25-22, 25-20), earning a spot in the
second round. The two countries had identical 1-2 records, but Germany finished in third place in Pool F based on the total points scored tiebreaker.
Gyorgy Grozer led the German team with 19 points while Dallas Soonais was the top Canadian with 10 points.
“It wasn’t easy to beat Canada,” said German head coach, Raul Lozano. “They are very solid and you can see the hands of Coach Hoag shaping this team into real competitors.”
The much anticipated matchup between Serbia and Poland did not enthral the crowd of 6600 as expected as Serbia took their second loss 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 21-25, 25-23) to Poland who ended the first round with a perfect record.
Serbia spread their scoring around as Marko Poddracanin, Sasa Starovic, Dragan Satnkovic, and Bojan Janic all scored in the double digits. Poland relied on Michal Winiarski’s 16 points and Zbigniew Bartman’s 11.
Serbia fell victim to mistakes midway through the first set, and the problems continued into the second. With Poland continuing to put points up on the board, Serbia couldn’t find a rhythm, and a beautiful lob from the back row by Michal Winiarski gave Poland
a 25-18 win in the second set, and a 2-0 lead.
More mistakes plagued Serbia in the third set, but with Poland beginning to show cracks, the Serbians were able to pull it together to take the set 25-21, clinching a spot in the second round based on total team points. Poland won the fourth set 25-23.
Serbia finished with a 1-2 record along with Canada and Germany, but finished second in the pool based on the tie breaker.
The tournament will continue on Thursday with Germany drawing Pool G. They’ll match up against Italy and Puerto Rico. Serbia earned a spot in Pool H and will match up against Cuba and Mexico. Poland will continue in Pool N against Brazil and Bulgaria. The
top two teams from each of the second round pools will advance to the third round of the tournament.
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