Matches of the Preliminary Phase in all six pools of the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in Poland and Slovenia are concluded and the pairings of the Round of 16 are known.
The group stage of the World Championship 2022 is over with six matches across three pools (A, E, and F) today, following yesterday’s schedule in which the last six matches of the remaining three pools were held and after which the names of the 10 participants of the Round of 16 were known: Serbia (Pool A), Brazil and Japan (Pool B), Poland and USA (Pool C), France and Slovenia (Pool D), Italy (Pool E), and the Netherlands and Iran (Pool F). Today, the names of six more sides that’ll join the eliminations were to be determined – two more runners-up and four best third-placed sides.
Turkey’s result has to be stressed. They have successfully completed the first stage of the World Championship for the first time in four appearances. Turkey defeated Canada 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-17) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to capture Pool E’s second open Round of 16 place. The Turks now have a 2-1 win-loss record and are the pool’s runner-up to Italy. Adis Lagumdžija, the opposite hitter, scored 17 points to lead his side today. Nicholas Hoag top-scored Canada with 15 points, including 4 aces but his team, even though was on the waiting list of the Top-4 of the third-placed sides for the rest of the day, remained beneath the ’line’.
Ukraine defeated Puerto Rico 3-1 to retain second place in Pool A.
Argentina had to exert all of their resources in order to advance to the elimination phase from Pool F in Ljubljana. The bronze medalists from the Tokyo Olympics were under pressure going into the last day of pool play after suffering back-to-back five-set losses to Iran and the Netherlands. But this time, thanks to Bruno Lima (23 points), they came out on top of the tie-breaker to defeat Egypt 3-2 (27-25, 26-28, 24-26, 25-17, 15-6) and earn a spot in the Round of 16 as one of the top four third-place teams.
Cuba and Germany, who finished their group stage competition yesterday, remained at the Top-4 of third-placed sides after today’s results, and that can also be said for Tunisia even though they succumbed 0-3 to Serbia today.
According to the new rule of the FIVB, teams that advance to the next stage are to be ranked and get their seeds, with positions No.1 and No.2 being reserved for co-hosts Poland and Slovenia, regardless of their results. And who of these two would get number 1 and who would get number 2 depended on who had a better score in the group stage, and that was Poland. There are several duels in the Round of 16 with the potential to be very intense games, such as Italy vs Cuba or Serbia vs Argentina.
2022 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship – Round of 16 pairings and their seeds:
(1) Poland – Tunisia (16)
(2) Slovenia – Germany (15)
(3) Italy – Cuba (14)
(4) Serbia – Argentina (13)
(5) Brazil – Iran (12)
(6) France – Japan (11)
(7) Netherlands – Ukraine (10)
(8) United States – Turkey (9)
Preliminary Phase, Day 6:
