VNL 2019: All matches of June, 1 (Week 1 -Day 2)

Ghafour drives Iran to the top position, first victory for Italy. Victory of Canada against Portugal and of Argentina in straight sets on Bulgaria. Strong resistance of Australia at Yoandy Leal’s debut but Brazil take the victory, Poland defend the home court against USA.
In Novi Sad domination of France, Russia defeat Japan.

In Pool 1, Igor Kolakovic’s team has won also the second game in the Volleyball nations league which pushed them to the top of the standings.
This time Iran met China on their home court and beat them in straight sets, without any difficults. Amir Ghafour had another good performance, and he was the best player of the match, scoring 19 points, while on the other side, there were no players with double digits.

Always in Pool 1 Italy have recorded the first victory: the defeated Germany in straight sets 25:21, 30:28, 25:23. Gabriele Nelli ended the match with 19 points, while Oreste Cavuto added 13 points. Simon Hirsch scored 13 on the other side.
In the round 3 of the week 1, Iran will meet Germany, while China will play against Italy.

In Pool 2, also Canada take the first victory. Thei won against Portugal, that remains still winless. Sharone Vernon-Evans was the top scorer of the match with 15 points, followed by Maar with 14. Alexandre Ferreira scored 9 for Portugal.

In the same Pool, Argentina defeated a Bulgaria without Sokolov in straight sets. Bruno Lima led his team to the victory, scoring 15 points, followed by Agustin Loser and Facundo Conte which scored 12 points each. On the other side no player reached a double-digit performance.

The most exciting games until this moment in Volleyball Nation League were probably played in Poland, in Pool 3: the game between Brazil and Australia could be described as a final, because both teams really gave everything they could to win the match. The first set, was an incredible battle in which the Aussies prevailed 34-32! However, Brazil set the control in the match, taking the next two sets to create an advantage in the match 2-1. The fourth set had to be extended as Australia refused to surrender, let’s go to tie break: 29-27. At the end, the experienced players of Brazil knew how to play the tie-break: they won 15-13, but it was a really difficult match for the olimpic champions. Yoandy Leal, the Cuban born player, who made a debut for Brazil, scored 14 points. Wallace de Souza was the best scorer with 20 points, while on the other side Jordan Richards and Samuel Walker scored 21 points each.

On the same Pool 3, Poland have defended their court once again, beating the USA in five sets! It was also an amazing game. Aleksander Sliwka was the top scorer with 20 points, while Dawid Konarski contributed with 15 and Michal Kubiak with 14. On the other side, Torey Defalco scored 20 points and Garrett Muaguttutia added 19 points.

In Pool 4, France have scored the second victory in the tournament, beating the hosts in Novi Sad, Serbia. It was a good match of Laurent Tillie’s team. Dusan Petkovic from Serbia was the top scorer of the match with 20 points, but it was not enough to defeat France, because he played alone. Timothee Carlee scored 12 points in France, while Jonas Aguenier added 11 points.

After suffering a defeat at the first match, Russia on the same Pool have scored a victory over Japan 3-1 (25:22, 23:25, 25:19, 25:23). Egor Kliuka led his team with 22 points, while Dmitry Volkov and Victor Poletaev added 16 points each. In Japan, Masahiro Yanagida scored 16 points.