Lausanne, Switzerland, May 4, 2019 – Pool 1 of the men’s 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League features the first match of the competition when Iran take on Italy at the Jiangmen Sports Center Gym at 16.00 local time in China on May 31. And what a way to get going in a pool where anything can happen, epitomizing the excitement that comes with a race between 16 of the best national teams in the world!
Iran, Italy, Germany and hosts China will try to score their first points in the run towards the spots at the final six tournament in Chicago, playing against each other in one of the four pools of the first competition weekend from May 31 through June 2.
Interestingly, three of the four teams finished the 2018 preliminary round practically “holding hands” in the final standings. Italy finished eighth with eight wins, followed by Germany and Iran in ninth and tenth, respectively, with seven wins each. All of them missed out on advancing to the finals in Lille, but showed their potential to succeed in an intensive competition.
In the 2019 VNL, Italy will bet on their new generation of talented players and this is bound to make the race in Jiangmen even more interesting. Led by their multifunctional 22-year-old star setter Simone Giannelli, the young hopefuls of the southern European squad will do their best to prove they belong to the team, but the bar was set high by last year’s Italian side, which won all three of their first weekend matches in May 2018 – against Germany, Brazil and Serbia.
Upon announcing Germany’s roster for the 2019 VNL season, their Italian coach Andrea Gianni set an ambitious goal for the team. “We were close to the finals last year,” he said. “This year we want to take the next step and fight for a place in the final tournament in USA. We have a strong team made up of experienced players and young athletes.” With players like captain Christian Fromm, who was among the top five spikers in the 2018 preliminary round, opposite Simon Hirsch, the sixth best scorer, and multi-talented Jan Zimmermann, the best server and the sixth best setter, on the squad, Giani has all the reasons to be confident the team will avoid a start similar to the three defeats in the first weekend of last year’s competition.
Iran are certainly keen on performing at a higher level than last year and producing better results than their 10th place in the 2018 VNL and 13th place at the World Championship. Experienced players like Mir Saeid Marouflakrani, Amir Ghafour, Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi or Farhad Ghaemi, have been training hard alongside a fresh flow of young athletes at the national team preparation camp, with more star volleyballers expected to join as their club season duties come to an end. Montenegrin coach Igor Kolakovic has expressed his satisfaction that “the team is already in a better physical condition than last year; the VNL is a very attractive and difficult competition and Iran will give their best.”
Iranian team training for the VNL in a good mood
If judged on the grounds of last year’s results, China may look like the underdog in the pool. They finished next to last in the 2018 VNL, on a 3-12 win-loss record, which, however, included a victory over favourites France. Argentine coach Raul Lozano’s team will play host to the Pool 1 matches. To take full advantage of that and please the home crowd with some positive results in Jiangmen, they started their preparations as early as February, and even went through a seven-day military training camp to strengthen will, discipline and team cohesion. 24-year-old opposite Jiang Chuan, who piled up an amazing 274 points to become the best scorer of the 2018 VNL preliminary round, will once again spearhead the Chinese attack and try to lead the team to success.
The Chinese national team players underwent a seven-day military training camp in preparation for the 2019 VNL