World Championship: All matches of Day 2.

POOL A @ Florence
Dominican Republic – Japan 0:3 (20:25, 20:25, 16:25)
Japan: easy victory against Dominican Republic, after the defeat against Italy in opening match of World Championship in Rome. Very important victory because with this win, they have stayed in the race for the next round in Milan or Bologna. Yuki Ishikawa, in Italy the last three years, was the best scorer of the match with 18 points, followed by Masahiro Yanagida with 12 points. For the Dominican Republic, Henry Antonio Lopez Capellan was the best scorer with 14 points.

Italy – Belgium 3:0 (25:20, 25:17, 25:16)
Italy leave no chance to surely a different Belgium of what won against Argentina in the first match of World Championship. Gianlorenzo Blengini’s team defeated Belgium in straight sets and was superior especially in breakpoint phase. Top scorer of the match was Ivan Zaytsev with 20 points.

First day results~
Italy – Japan 3:0 (25:20, 25:21, 25:23) @ Rome
Dominican Republic – Slovenia 1:3 (25:22, 13:25, 13:25, 17:25)
Belgium – Argentina 3:1 (25:19, 25:19, 21:25, 25:20)

POOL B @ Ruse
Egypt – Canada 0:3 (25:27, 28:30, 19:25)
Canada, what a match! Egypt have given a huge resistance in this match against Canada, and the team of Stephane Antiga had a really difficult job against Egypt. Canada had to play two long sets, however, with some good moves of Nicholas Hoag and John Perrin, they managed to win both sets and to win the match, despite all, 3:0. The top scorers were Hoag with 24 points, while John Perrin scored 18. Ahmed Shafik was still the best player in Egypt with 17 points.

Brazil – France 3:2 (25:20, 25:20, 21:25, 23:25, 15:12)
Brazil win after trailing 10-7 in the tie-break against France! Brazil had a 2-0 lead and they were sure to the victory. However, the French team brought the score in sets 2-2! Laurent Tillie’s team had a better opening in the tie-break, making a 10-7 advantage, but a comeback led Brazilians to the victory over France. Brazil have now a huge chance to take the first place in Pool B. Wallace de Souza was the top scorer in Brazil, finishing the match with 20 points, followed by Lipe Fonteles with 15, Douglas Souza 14 and Lucas Saatkamp 12. Earvin Ngapeth was the best, scoring 22 points, but playing alone. Only Stephen Boyer had a double-digit performance, with 11 points.

First day results~
France – China 3:0 (25:20, 25:21, 25:17)
Netherlands – Canada 0:3 (15:25, 23:25, 18:25)
Brazil – Egypt 3:0 (25:17 25:22 25:20)

POOL C @ Bari
Australia – United States 2:3 (23:25, 20:25, 25:22, 25:23, 10:15)
USA, what happened? One of the favorite of world championship was ahead 2-0 lead but beat the Aussies only in the tie-break, in another hard match. John Speraw’s team needed five sets to beat the Australian national team. The United States have opened the match by winning the first set 25:23 and also the second 25:20. Australia didn’t want to surrender that easily, and made a comeback, shocking the John Speraw’s team. Top scorers of the match were Williams with 21 points, followed by Max Staples with 12, Anderson 20, Sander 16 and Russell 14.

Cameroon – Serbia 0:3 (28:30, 16:25, 16:25)
First win also for Serbia at the World Championship! Even though the first was very fighted, in the other two sets, Serbia didn’t have lot of troubles. Nikola Grbic combined for this match, keeping on the bench Uros Kovacevic, Aleksandar Atanasijevic (who played only a few minutes) and Marko Podrascanin. The top scorer was Drazen Luburic with 19 points, while Nemanja Petric scored 12.

First day results~
Cameroon – Tunisia 3:0 (25:20, 28:26, 25:21)
Australia – Russia 0:3 (21:25, 20:25, 16:25)
United States – Serbia 3:2 (15:25, 25:14, 21:25, 25:20, 15:10)

POOL D @ Varna
Puerto Rico-Poland 0:3 (14:25, 12:25, 15:25)
Another victory for the reigning champions of Poland, nothing to do for Puerto Rico. Poland have scored the second victory at the World Championship! All easy and they pretty much easily destroyed Puerto Rico in straight sets 3-0. The head coach of Poland Vital Heynen has rested Bartosz Kurek, Piotr Nowakowski and Artur Szalpuk in this match, while Michal Kubiak played only in the first two sets. The top scorer for Poland was Aleksandar Sliwka with 13 points, followed by Mateusz Bieniek had 12 and Jakub Kochanowski 11 points.

Iran – Bulgaria 3:1 (25:22, 25:20, 22:25, 25:19)
Home court didn’t help Konstantinov’s team, and Iran is victorious! So, Bulgaria has suffered the first defeat at the World Championship. After winning the first two sets, Iran had an attention deficit and the rivals took the opportunity to decrease the lead. However, in the fourth set, Igor Kolakovic’s team played again at the high level, closing the match in four sets! Mohammad Manavi was the best scorer with 21 points, followed by Seyed Mousavi and Amir Ghafour, 11 points each. Ali Shafiei added 10. For Bulgaria, Todor Skrimov was the top scorer with 17 points while Nikolay Uchikova, Viktor Yosifov and Nikolay Penchev signed 10 points each.

First day Results~
Bulgaria-Finland 3:0 (25:21, 25:19, 25:22)
Iran-Puerto Rico 3:0 (25:19, 25:14, 25:18)
Cuba-Poland 1:3 (18:25, 19:25, 25:21, 14:25)