Volleyball World Championship: Group B – Brazil take on France

Posted On: November 5, 2022

Group B has two big favourites: Brazil and France. Canarinhos volleyball players for the first time in the 21st century will not go to the world championships as the main candidates for gold. It is undoubtedly the best team in the world for ten years, triple champion (2002, 2006, 2010) and vice-champion (2014) of the globe. Failure at the last World Cup, because that’s what Brazil’s ambitions should be to call “only” a silver medal won in Poland, which they won in 2016 by winning gold at the Rio Olympics.

After the Olympic triumph, the coach was changed: Bernardo Rezende, the creator of the successes of the Canarinhos team, left and was replaced by Renan Dal Zotto. The Brazilians are in big trouble this season due to injuries to some of the best players. They already paid for it in the Nations League Final Six in Lille, where they fell in the semi-final against the French and in the 3rd place game against the USA, both 0-3. During this tournament, Mauricio Borges was injured and will therefore not play in the World Cup final; Ricardo Lucarelli won’t be performing either. In this situation, Dal Zotto’s coach made fourteen of the following players:

strategist: William Arjona, Bruno Rezende.
host: Luiz Felipe Fonteles, Lucas Loh, Douglas Souza, Carlos Eduardo Silva.
attacker: Evandro Guerra, Wallace de Souza.
environment: Eder Carbonera, Isaac Santos, Lucas Saatkamp, Mauricio Souza.
libero: Thales Hoss, Maique Reis.

Will the weakened Brazilians get on the World Cup podium again? Already in the group they will face strong France, which however also has its problems. At the end of August, the chilling news appeared in the veins of volleyball fans – Earvin N’Gapeth suffered an injury to his abdominal muscles during one of the training sessions. The forecasts of doctors predict that in the first phase he may not appear on the parquet. Will he be able to train for the next rounds of the world championship? We discovered the importance of this player for the national team last season. While in great form, the Habs won the World League, beating the Brazil national team on home turf after a fantastic 3-2 final. Two months later, when he returned from injury and was not fully available, France suffered a defeat at the European Championships in Poland.

The tricolors attempted their first assault against the world’s best in the 1980s, but without success. Hosting the 1986 World Cup, they did not win a medal. A few years later, under the guidance of trainer Philippe Blain, they managed to climb to the lowest step of the podium. In 2012, after a few weaker seasons, the team was taken over by Laurent Tillie and Trójkolorowi again established itself among the world leaders. They won the World League (2015, 2017), they also triumphed in the European Championship (2015). They have performed well in the Nations League competition this season. They won the main phase (with a record of 12 wins – 3 losses), but in the final in Lille they had to recognize the superiority of the Russians.

Four years ago, at the World Championships in Poland, they took 4th place. Can Jenia Grebennikov, Kevin Le Roux, Benjamin Toniutti and their colleagues improve on this feat at the Italo-Bulgarian party? They will play in the following line-up:

strategist: Antoine Brizard, Benjamin Toniutti.
host: Julien Lyneel, Earvin N’Gapeth, Thibault Rossard, Kevin Tillie.
attacker: Stephen Boyer, Jean Patry.
environment: Daryl Bultor, Barthélemy Chinenyeze, Nicolas Le Goff, Kevin Le Roux.
libero: Jenia Grebennikov, Jérémie Mouiel.

It should be added that the successful match between Brazil and France will take place on Thursday September 13 (7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport Extra).

Another team in this group is the Canadian national team, led by the coach of the 2014 world champions – Stéphane Antiga. It was under Antiga’s leadership that the nation’s volleyball players Maple Leaf won the World League bronze medal in 2017; it was this team’s biggest hit so far – the debut album at a global event. The Canadiens are struggling this season. Injuries to several top players have greatly weakened this team, which was manifested, for example, at the Wagner Memorial. In Krakow, during the confrontation with Poland, quarterback TJ Sanders suffered a threatening injury, which further upset the ranks of Antiga. How many of his students will be able to recover completely at the World Cup?

The other teams seem much weaker than the three mentioned above. The Egyptians in 2017, after many years of hegemony, lost the African championship. In previous World Championships they were ranked 21st, will the team with its biggest star striker Ahmed Salah fight for promotion this time? The competition for a place in the top four will be, among others, with the Chinese, who are progressing under coach Raul Lozano, but – unlike the powerful Chinese women’s team – they are far from best. This year they managed to cause a sensation by beating France 3-2 in the Nations League tournament in Łódź, but it will be extremely difficult to repeat such a result at the World Cup.

The Netherlands – volleyball giant of the 90s, Olympic champion in Atlanta (1996) – are recovering from a period of drought and return to the World Cup after a sixteen-year break. In 1994, the Orange team reached the World Cup final, where they lost 1: 3 to Italy. Today, they can only dream of a similar success. At last year’s European Championships in Poland, they didn’t even leave the group and ended up finishing in 14th place.

Group B teams will face off at the Bulstrad Arena in Ruse, Bulgaria. The top four teams will advance to the next phase of the tournament.

Places in the FIVB ranking:

Brazil – 1, Canada – 6, France – 9, Egypt – 13, China – twenty, the Netherlands – 25.

World Cup final performance so far:

Brazil: 1956 – 11, 1960 – 5, 1962 – 10, 1966 – 13, 1970 – 12, 1974 – 9, 1978 – 6, 1982 – SILVER1986 – 4th, 1990 – 4th, 1994 – 5th, 1998 – 4th, 2002 – GOLD, 2006 – GOLD, 2010 – GOLD, 2014 – SILVER.

France: 1949 – 6, 1952 – 6, 1956 – 7, 1960 – 9, 1966 – 18, 1970 – 17, 1974 – 16, 1978 – 15, 1982 – 16, 1986 – 6, 1990 – 8, 2002 – BRONZE2006 – 6th, 2010 – 11th, 2014 – 4th.

Canada: 1974 – 20, 1978 – 20, 1982 – 11, 1990 – 12, 1994 – 9, 1998 – 12, 2002 – 17, 2006 – 11, 2010 – 19, 2014 – 7.

Egypt: 1974 – 17, 1978 – 23, 1986 – 14, 1998 – 19, 2002 – 19, 2006 – 21, 2010 – 13, 2014 – 21.

China: 1956 – 9th, 1962 – 9th, 1966 – 9th, 1974 – 15th, 1978 – 7th, 1982 – 7th, 1986 – 12th, 1994 – 13th, 1998 – 13th place, 2002 – 13th place, 2006 – 17th place, 2010 – 19010 – 19th place place, 2014 – 15th place.

The Netherlands: 1949 – 10, 1956 – 13, 1962 – 12, 1966 – 12, 1970 – 14, 1974 – 12, 1978 – 16, 1990 – 7, 1994 – SILVER1998 – 6th, 2002 – 9th.

2018 Volleyball World Cup Group B broadcast schedule and schedule:

09/12/2018: France – China (Wednesday, 1 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport)
09/12/2018: Netherlands – Canada (Wednesday, 4 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport News)
09/12/2018: Brazil – Egypt (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport News)
2018-09-13: Egypt – Canada (Thursday, 4 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport Extra
2018-09-13: Brazil – France (Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport Extra)
2018-09-14: China – Netherlands (Friday, 4 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport News)
2018-09-14: France – Egypt (Friday, 7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport News)
2018-09-15: Canada – China (Saturday, 4 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport Extra)
2018-09-15: Netherlands – Brazil (Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport News)
2018-09-16: China – Egypt (Sunday, 5:00 p.m.; premiere – Polsat Sport News 11:00 p.m.)
2018-09-16: Netherlands – France (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport Extra)
2018-09-17: Egypt – Netherlands (Monday, 4 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport Extra)
2018-09-17: Brazil – Canada (Monday, 7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport Extra)
2018-09-18: China – Brazil (Tuesday, 4 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport News)
2018-09-18: Canada-France (Tuesday 7:30 p.m.; broadcast – Polsat Sport News).