Will Brazil, Russia and Poland be the top-3 teams in final round FIVB World Cup?
The men’s premier international volleyball competition is underway in Japan with the 12 best teams from across the globe. The 2011 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Cup took centre stage on Sunday, November 20 in Japan. According to the set formula of Federation
International de Volleyball (FIVB), the tournament has covered the first two legs and the third round is in progress.
Brazil entered the competition labelled as the defending champions. They had defeated Russia in the previous edition of the World Cup in 2007. Brazil and runner-up Russia started the campaign in the same group. In the first round of the tournament, each
team got the chance play three matches. At the end of opening round, the two giants of the volleyball world, Russia and Brazil, topped the standings in Site B. On the other hand, the Polish team enjoyed the limelight in Site A. Hence, these three teams got
hold of the top-3 positions at the end of first round.
Russia and Poland picked up absolute success in the first round and captured all their matches. They bagged 9 points apiece, while Brazil followed them up in the third position with 7 points. Brazil suffered the loss of one match as Italy came out hard on
the South Americans in the final match of the first round and posted a 3-2 victory. However, Brazil managed to stay in the top-3 with the help of seven points.
The second round of the tournament started out on November 24 after a two-day break. During the break, teams worked on their flaws and formulated new game strategies for the second round matches. Brazil and Russia were again in the same group and they also
had to open the second round. The two archrivals clashed in the first match of second round and staged an action-packed thriller. Brazil got the edge and broke three-match winning streak of Russia. In the second match, Brazil went against China and settled
for 3-2 victory. Brazil earned success in both of its matches of second round and improved to the top position in team rankings. Russia, on the other hand, finished the round with one loss and had to step down to third position. Poland lost to Iran and defeated
host Japan with 3-1, which helped the Poles to stay in the top 3 teams of the tournament.
Third round of the tournament is in progress and only two matches are left to be played. So far, Russia and Poland have played their matches, while Brazil is scheduled to take on Serbia after a few hours. Poland had a good run in the third round. Poles rallied
a 3-0 run and improved to the top slot in overall standings of the teams with 22 points. Russia also won three matches but fell short of one-set in the last match, which pushed them to second position with 21 points.
Brazil is currently standing at third position with 16 points and it has one more match to go. Brazil can only get three points by beating Serbia with best score, which means that Brazil will be behind Russia and Poland with 19 points.
The final round of the 2011 FIVB World Cup is supposed to begin on December 2. Each team will play three matches. There is a strong likelihood that top-3 position will be split among Poland, Russia, and Brazil. Poland has tough matches in the final round
of the competition, while Russia has two weak opponents. Russia is tipped to prove its superiority in the final round and to win the World Cup.
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