San Juan, Argentina, April 24, 2018 – The Argentinean city of San Juan is preparing to host one of the tournaments of the inaugural FIVB Volleyball Nations League for men. Having hosted the FIVB Volleyball World League seven times in the past, most recently in 2009, the city in western Argentina is bracing itself for the games in Pool 7 during the second weekend of the new competition.
From June 1 through 3, the national teams of Canada, Iran and Italy will join the Argentinean squad of coach Julio Velasco at the Aldo Cantoni indoor stadium for three days, part of the race for tickets to the VNL Finals in Lille, France. Argentina will start their campaign a week earlier with a tournament in China. Following the tournament in San Juan, Julio Velasco’s team will travel to France, Germany and Australia for the remainder of the competition’s round robin stage.
Meanwhile the women’s national team of Argentina have intensified their preparations before playing in the Volleyball Nations League. Las Panteras have been training under the guidance of coach Guillermo Orduna in Buenos Aires since April 16 in two working groups containing a total of 42 players.
Their VNL campaign also includes a home stop, during the fifth weekend of play (June 12 - 14) before the Finals in Nanjing, China. Before entertaining Korea, Serbia and USA at the UTN stadium in Santa Fe, the Argentines will also make trips to Russia, Turkey, China and Poland.
In training his squad, Guillermo Orduna also has to think ahead to the team’s participation in the Pan American Cup in the Dominican Republic in July and the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship in Japan in September and October.