On Wednesday the best six teams in FIVB World League 2015 will start their fight for the naming themselves “Winner”. The hosts from Brazil, the USA, Italy, France, Serbia and Italy will give their best to achieve the prestigious first spot. Of course, supporters around the globe expect amazing rallies and a lot of positive volleyball emotions.
Let’s see how the teams presented till now in FIVB World League …
USA (9-3), last year’s champion is still one of the favorites and has great opportunities to repeat their success again. They dominated the most difficult Pool facing Poland, Iran and Russia. Even so, they managed to keep their best players healthy reaching the final with their optimized squad.
Brazil (9-3), also gained the first place in their Pool. They were the the most consistent team of all. Their three lost games came by result to the maximum of 5 sets. Additionaly, these lost were decded by a minimum of two points each. Who will coach the finals? Roberley Leonaldo or Bernardo Rezende? Leonaldo is a talented “newborn” and managed Brazil very well in this tournament. I think he obtained the right to coach the finals and that will be a great challenge for him and for Brazil also…
France came to these finals with a 14-0 (wins-loses) record in Group 2. But now they are in Group One with only four days to rest and to adapt to a different time zone for this short Period of time. To make it even worse for them they will have to face the teams (Brazil & USA) with the best mark in the tournament. I think that their best chance is in the first game because each day that passes the tiredness will grow bigger for them.
In Pool J Poland (8-4) got the best chances to win because they played as same as USA in the strongest Pool in regular season. Also Poland had a good path when they came to this tournament with a World Championship as a reference. Bartosz Kurek, one of the world best players also was a key point for TeamPoland.
Serbia (7-5), looked well in the regular season when the played great matches against Brazil and dominated Italy (6-6) in three games to one.
Serbia’s and Italy’s players block and attack very well but they are not very consistent and that will put both out of the best three places.
When talking about Italy…maybe you all know that the head coach Mauro Berruto had expelled some of the key players in the team – Ivan Zaytsev, Dragan Travica, Gulio Sabbi and Luigi Randazzo due to discipline violation. Many were surprised by his decision, but on the other hand many supported the volleyball specialist saying that the volleyball is above all. Ivan Zaytsev apologized for being disrespectful but now the supporters of Squadra Azzura ask themselves : Could Italy do it the right way without their stars? Could Vettori and co resist on the pressure? Now is their time and maybe they could surprise us…
Predictions: Uff!!! Brazil, USA & Poland are my top three. Easy, no? The hard decision is who will win and who -not. Well I think the USA will retain the Title because they commit few errors and play very fast. Poland on second place and Brazil will finish third.
Photo: FIVB
