Lausanne, Switzerland, June 3, 2018 - Iran and Canada go head-to-head Sunday in San Juan, Argentina, for the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League for only the second time in history. They had previously met at the 2015 FIVB World Cup in Japan, with the North Americans prevailing in straight sets.
Head-to-Head
• These teams have had one world level major encounter, a 3-0 Canada win at the 2015 World Cup.
• World level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup.
• In that 3-0 win over Iran, Canada had the narrowest of winning margins in all three sets: 25-23, 29-27, 26-24.
• The only team Canada has faced more than once in world level major competitions without ever losing is Venezuela (four matches, four wins). They could manage this against Iran today.
• Iran have at least one win against all teams they met at least twice in world level major competitions. They lost their only encounter against Canada.
Iran
• Iran have won two and lost three of their five matches at the 2018 VNL: L - W - L - W - L.
• On Saturday, Iran were beaten in straight sets by Italy. They could now lose consecutive matches at a world level major tournament for the first time since a three-match losing streak at the 2017 Nations League.
• Those three defeats were all by a 3-0 score line, against the United States, Poland and Russia.
• Milad Ebadipour was Iran's leading scorer against Italy on 12 points, four more points than his teammate Amir Ghafour (8) who appeared in only two sets.
• In total, Ebadipour is Iran's top scorer this VNL campaign on 67 points.
Canada
• On Saturday, Canada claimed their second victory in week 2 of the VNL as they defeated hosts Argentina 3-1. On Friday, Canada had beaten Italy 3-1.
• Canada could now win three successive matches at major world level for the first time since 2016, when they won their final two matches of their World League campaign and their first fixture at the 2016 Olympic Games.
• Stephen Maar was Canada's top scorer against Argentina on 18 points.
• Ryan Sclater scored four points from blocks against Argentina.