The first days of Volleyball Nations League competition have already provided a good dose of emotion. In the tournament held in Ottawa, Argentina beat Italy 3-0, and Canada won in a tie-break with Cuba.

The Italian national team flew to Canada in a very experimental composition. Coach Ferdinando De Giorgi decided not to bring mr. Alessandro Michieletto, Daniele Lavii, Riccardo Sbertoli, Simone Anzani and Simone Giannelli. Note however that all these volleyball players were part of a large workforce of 30 people registered in the League of Nations.

The start of the first match in VNL 2023 for Azzuri was promising. In the first set they even led 17:12, mainly thanks to the efficient Yuri Romano, but they lost all the advantage in straight sets. The Argentines led to a draw after 18, then won that part of the match 25:22.

In the second set, the lead changed from time to time – and it was like 2-3 points. Four of the first five games were won by the Albicelestes, but later it was tied 10:10. Later, the Italians escaped to three points (15:12), then each to 16. To a large extent, such a game was the result of a large number of errors made by both teams. In the end, it was Marcelo Mendez’s side who withstood the pressure and won at 23.

The third set is already a guaranteed victory for Argentina who leads the match from start to finish. The team’s wingers played a good game – Bruno Lima finished the game with 17 points, Luciano Vicentin with 12 and Luciano Palonsky – with 10. In the last episode, Italy scored only 18 points and after 91 minutes, the game was over.

The game between Canada and Cuba provided more emotions, although we are aware that these are teams fighting for different goals than Italy and Argentina. This meeting had a Polish accent – its referee was Wojciech Maroszek. In the first set, tournament hosts Ottawa won 25:21 and lost in the second set at 28.

The third set was again won by the team of coach Tuomas Sammelvuo, this time 25:21, and the fourth was scored by the volleyball players of Nicolas Ernesto Vives Coffigne – 25:22. In the tie-break, the Canadians showed more physical and mental strength, winning 15:13.

27 points at the end of the meeting had the striker of the Maple Leaf team – Ryan Sclater. One more point was scored by Marlon Herrera, who played on the other side of the net.

On day two (ie the night of Wednesday June 7 to Thursday June 8) in Ottawa, the United States will face the Netherlands, and Brazil will face Germany. The first meeting starts at 10:30 p.m. and the second at 2:00 a.m.

Italy – Argentina 0:3 (10:25 p.m., 11:25 p.m., 6:25 p.m.)

Italy: Porro, Recine, Mosca, Romano, Rinaldi, Cortesia, Balaso (libero) and Gironi, Falaschi, Bottolo, Sanguinetti.

Argentina: De Cecco, Palonsy, Loser, Lima, Vicentin, Zerba, Danani (libero) and Gallego, Sanchez, Kukartsev.

Canada-Cuba 3:2 (25:21, 26:28, 25:21, 22:25, 15:13)

Canada: Herr, Hoag, Demyanenko, Sclater, Maar, Van Berkel, Currie (libero) and Blankenau, Szwarc, Eshenko, Hofer.

Cuba: Taboada, Lopez, Concepcion, Herrera, Mergarejo, Masso, Garcia (libero) and Suarez, Yant, Gutierrez, Gorguet (libero).

Table of the Nations League 2023:

Nations League 2023

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