Lausanne, 23 July 2006 – Defending World League champions Brazil, playing in Pool B, came away from their first four matches having lost only one set. Bulgaria and Cuba kept the same record and now practically share the lead in Pool D, separated by only the most slender of points margins. After last week’s surprise win against Serbia and Montenegro, Japan succumbed to the USA team in straight sets in both its matches, whereas two of the teams to watch, Finland and France, each put in another respectable performance on their away matches.

Pool A’s second pairing saw Serbia and Montenegro take on Poland at home and win both its matches in one of the hardest-fought encounters of the weekend. In the weekend’s second match at the Pionir Hall in Belgrade, the two-hour spectacle saw the teams trade sets until the tie-break fifth set, with Poland serving out on match point to hand the “blue boys” their third victory in four matches. Head coach Ljubomir Travica was satisfied with his team’s performance. “With good services, good attacks and attractive moves in the defence of both teams, spectators were able to fully enjoy good volleyball. We had oscillations in our play in 2^nd and 4^th sets but we’re working on our form and joint play as we need continuity of our game to bring the results we want. This is the strongest Pool and the situation will be uncertain to the very last weekend,” he said.

Brazil continued to dominate Pool B as the team welcomed neighbours Argentina for a rematch of last weekend’s action. Bernardo Rezende’s men won their two home matches but also gave away their first set of the competition, which was a cause of some concern for the head coach. “We played well in the first set and that made our team relax in the following set. That cannot happen. We made 33 mistakes during the whole match. That was too much.” After swift corrective action from Bernardinho, the weekend’s second match saw Brazil back on form, more than halving the number of errors and sweeping Argentina aside 3-0 once again. Argentine captain Marcos Milinkovic said, “We did not really play. This was very similar to what happened in Argentina. We played well on Saturday, but things did not work out on Sunday”.

Finland proved that their straight-set victories at home against Portugal last weekend were no fluke as the world number 42 made the Portuguese fight hard for their first victory in a five-setter in Matosinhos. Having lost the first set, the Finns rallied to take the next two before narrowly losing the fourth set 25-22 and eventually losing out 15-13 in the tie-break. However, the Finns reacted well in the second match to reverse the first day’s score and win 3-2 to keep their second place in the group behind Brazil. Finland’s captain Tuomas Sammelvuo was top scorer in the second match with 25 points. Happy with the victory, Finland’s Italian head coach Mauro Berruto was already thinking ahead to the important next matches: “We didn't play very well but we won this match. Our team is a very young team with only the captain playing in international matches. Now we are facing the number one and number seven teams in the world ranking, it won't be easy for us.”

France caused another upset in Pool C as they won both of their away matches against world number two Italy in Verona and Trento. At the end of the weekend, Italy’s head coach Gianpaolo Montali was full of admiration for the French team: “I like the way the French team plays. It's a team well structured in defence with a good approach to every game. I am very happy to have beaten them in the last European Championship because this World League is showing how strong they are. We improved a little bit after Verona but from the third set on we paid the price for our serving and receiving skills.” France are now tied in first place in the pool with Russia, who conceded only one set in their two matches against China in Chengdu. This was China’s first set victory of the tournament so far, leaving them bottom of Pool C.

In Pool D, Cuba made light work of beating Egypt in straight sets, taking just over two hours for its two matches against the African side. The score line leaves Egypt, who were hampered by a flight delay and late arrival in Havana, still looking to win their first set in the competition. The team’s head coach Grzegorz Rys thinks the odds will be stacked more in their favour when they play at home in Cairo for the next two rounds. “It is not easy to play against Cuba because their attack prevailed over our block. We hope to play better when we meet again in Cairo. I am not disappointed as I expected two difficult matches. We know Cuba is much better than us. It is a new experience for us,” he said.

In Jeonju, Korea suffered their fourth consecutive loss in the tournament so far, as Bulgaria swept them aside 3-1 and 3-0 to share the top spot in Pool D with Cuba. Bulgaria’s head coach Martin Stoev revealed his ambitious objectives: “First of all, I do want to win the match against Cuba. Our goal is going to the World League final match and being the winner of a match against one of the best teams like Brazil.”

FIVB 2006 World League action continues with the second round of play from 28 July until 4 August with home matches for China, Cuba, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the USA.

2006 FIVB World League, standings after round 1

Pool A: 1 Serbia & Montenegro, 2 U.S.A., 3 Poland, 4 Japan

Pool B: 1 Brazil, 2 Finland, 3 Portugal, 4 Argentina

Pool C: 1 Russia, 2 France, 3 Italy, 4 China

Pool D: 1 Cuba, 2 Bulgaria, 3 Korea, 4 Egypt

The winners of each pool, plus Russia as host country and one wild card chosen by the FIVB, go through to the Final Round in Moscow from 23-27 August 2006.