Waiting for VNL 2026 Semifinals – remakes of recent five-set battles in Preliminary Phase in Linyi and Orléans

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Article wrote by Danilo from Ningbo for Volleytimes, please respect his job.

Saturday, August 1, is 2026 Volleyball Nations League Finals semifinals day in Ningbo Beilun, China, with the first duel for a ticket for Sunday’s gold medal match that features an all-European clash between Slovenia and Poland.
Then, Japan and the United States will face each others in the second one.

Both of these clashes already occurred during the Preliminary Phase and produced thrilling five-set games!

It will be the fourth (third in a row) time Slovenia play in the VNL semifinals.
In all three previous cases, they finished the campaign in fourth place, so they are yet to claim their first ever VNL medal.
This season, Slovenia took third place in the final Preliminary Phase standings on a 10-2 win-loss record and 26 points.
In the opening quarterfinal in Ningbo on Wednesday, they survived through an epic battle against Turkiye and celebrated a 3-0 (25:21, 35:33, 39:37) victory. Slovenia are currently the number five team in the FIVB World Ranking.
Poland, on the other hand, are the defending champions and the world’s number one team.
They have won the VNL twice, in 2023 and in 2025, while in 2021, they took silver. They also have three bronze medals in their pocket, 2019, 2022 and 2024.
So, they have made the podiums at all of the six most recent (out of a total of seven) VNL editions.
Poland are also silver medalists of the last Olympic Games and bronze medalists of the last World Championship.
They took second place in this year’s Preliminary Phase, on 10-2 and 29, and then, they eliminated Ukraine in their quarterfinal on Thursday, taking a 3-1 (25:22, 22:25, 25:20, 25:17) victory.
In the past 12 years, Slovenia and Poland have met 18 times in official competitions and the head-to-head record is balanced at nine wins each.
In the VNL alone, Poland lead by 4-3 in wins.
When they last met in Linyi, China during the first week of this year’s VNL, they played a five-set thriller, won by Slovenia 3-2 (27:25, 23:25, 26:24, 21:25, 19:17).

About Saturday’s second semifinal, Japan are the only undefeated team in this year’s VNL.
They topped the Preliminary Phase on 12-0 and 30, and then, eliminated Finals hosts China in a 3-1 (23:25, 25:23, 25:16, 25:23) comeback in one of Wednesday’s quarterfinals in Ningbo.
During the competition, Japan climbed three positions up the World Ranking to number four.
Japan have collected two medals in the VNL so far, a 2023 bronze and a 2024 silver. Last year, they failed to get past the quarterfinals, where they were stopped by champions-to-be Poland.
Their rivals USA finished the Preliminary Phase in fifth place on 8-4 and 25.
On Thursday, they celebrated an amazing 3-0 (25:22, 25:21, 25:21) quarterfinal sweep of last year’s silver medalists and reigning world champions Italy to move on to the semifinals for the fifth time.
The Americans have never won the VNL, but they have collected three silver medals (2019, 2022, 2023) and a bronze (2018).
Last year they did not make it to the Finals and finished in 12th place.
Their last podium at a world-level event was a bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Currently, the United States hold the number six spot in the World Ranking.
Japan and USA have met 50 times at major world-level tournaments, with the Americans who have won 38 of these encounters, the Asians the other 12, including the two most recent ones, in VNL 2025 and in VNL 2026.
The overall head-to-head record in the VNL alone stands at 4-3 in favor of the United States, with Japan winning the last three meetings in the competition. The two teams last met on June 27 in Orléans, France.
In a hot (in every sense) five-set clash, Japan came back from a set down twice to claim a 3-2 (18:25, 25:21, 20:25, 25:22, 15:13) victory.

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