The 2019 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League was the second edition of the FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League, an annual international men's volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams. The competition was held between May and July 2019, and the final round took place in the Credit Union 1 Arena, Chicago, United States. This was the first edition of the World League or the Nations League to have the final round hosted in North America.
Following the results of the 2018 Nations League and 2018 Challenger Cup, South Korea were replaced by debutants Portugal in this edition.
Portugal were the last placed challenger team after the preliminary round and will be replaced by 2019 Challenger Cup winners Slovenia in the 2020 edition.
Russia successfully defended its title, defeating finals hosts, the United States, in the final. Poland claimed the bronze after sweeping Brazil in three straight sets. Matt Anderson from United States named the MVP of the tournament.
Teams Qualification Sixteen teams qualified for the competition. Twelve of them qualified as core teams which cannot face relegation. Other four teams were selected as challenger teams which could be relegated from the tournament. Portugal replaced South Korea after winning the 2018 Challenger Cup.
CountryConfederationDesignationPrevious appearancesPrevious best performanceTotalFirstLastCSVCore team12018201814th place (2018)AVCChallenger team12018201813th place (2018)CSVCore team1201820184th place (2018)CEVChallenger team12018201811th place (2018)NORCECAChallenger team1201820187th place (2018)AVCCore team12018201815th place (2018)CEVCore team120182018Runners-up (2018)CEVCore team1201820189th place (2018)AVCCore team12018201810th place (2018)CEVCore team1201820188th place (2018)AVCCore team12018201812th place (2018)CEVCore team1201820185th place (2018)CEVChallenger team0NoneDebutCEVCore team120182018Champions (2018)CEVCore team1201820185th place (2018)NORCECACore team1201820183rd place (2018)
Squads
Format Preliminary round The 16 teams competed in a round-robin format, with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams were divided into 4 pools of 4 teams at each week and competed for five weeks, totalling 120 matches. The top five teams after the preliminary round joined the hosts of the final round to compete in the final round. The relegation took into consideration only the 4 challenger teams. The last-ranked challenger team was excluded from the 2020 Volleyball Nations League. The winners of the 2019 Challenger Cup qualified for the next edition as a challenger team.
Final round The six qualified teams played in 2 pools of 3 teams in a round-robin format. The top 2 teams of each pool qualified for the semifinals. The pool winners played against the runners-up in this round. The semifinals winners advanced to compete for the Volleyball Nations League title. The losers faced each other in the third place match.
Pools composition The overview of pools was released on October 23, 2018.
Preliminary round Week 1Pool 1ChinaPool 2ArgentinaPool 3PolandPool 4SerbiaWeek 2Pool 5ChinaPool 6RussiaPool 7JapanPool 8CanadaWeek 3Pool 9PortugalPool 10BulgariaPool 11IranPool 12FranceWeek 4Pool 13United StatesPool 14ItalyPool 15IranPool 16BrazilWeek 5Pool 17AustraliaPool 18BrazilPool 19BulgariaPool 20Germany
Final round Pool APool B (Hosts) (preliminary round 3rd) (preliminary round 4th) (preliminary round 1st) (preliminary round 2nd) (preliminary round 5th)
Venues The list of host cities and venues was announced on 26 March 2019.
Preliminary round Week 1Pool 1Pool 2Pool 3Pool 4Jiangmen, ChinaMendoza, ArgentinaKatowice, PolandNovi Sad, SerbiaJiangmen Sports Center GymnasiumAconcagua ArenaSpodekSPC VojvodinaCapacity: 8,500Capacity: 10,000Capacity: 11,500Capacity: 6,987Week 2Pool 5Pool 6Pool 7Pool 8Ningbo, ChinaUfa, RussiaTokyo, JapanOttawa, CanadaBeilun GymnasiumUfa ArenaMusashino Forest Sports PlazaTD Place ArenaCapacity: 4,000Capacity: 8,250Capacity: 10,000Capacity: 9,500Week 3Pool 9Pool 10Pool 11Pool 12Gondomar, PortugalVarna, BulgariaUrmia, IranCannes, FranceMultiusos de GondomarPalace of Culture and SportsGhadir ArenaPalais des VictoiresCapacity: 5,000Capacity: 6,000Capacity: 6,000Capacity: 4,000Week 4Pool 13Pool 14Pool 15Pool 16Hoffman Estates, United StatesMilan, ItalyArdabil, IranCuiabá, BrazilSears Centre ArenaPalaLidoRezazadeh StadiumGinásio Aecim TocantinsCapacity: 10,000Capacity: 5,420Capacity: 6,000Capacity: 12,000Week 5Pool 17Pool 18Pool 19Pool 20Brisbane, AustraliaBrasília, BrazilPlovdiv, BulgariaLeipzig, GermanyQueensland State Netball CentreNilson Nelson GymnasiumKolodrumaArena LeipzigCapacity: 5,000Capacity: 11,105Capacity: 6,100Capacity: 12,000
Final round All matchesChicago, United StatesCredit Union 1 ArenaCapacity: 10,000
Competition schedule ●Preliminary round●Final round
Week 131 May – 2 JunWeek 27–9 JunWeek 314–16 JunWeek 421–23 JunWeek 528–30 JunWeek 6Rest WeekWeek 710–14 Jul24 matches24 matches24 matches24 matches24 matches10 matches
Pool standing procedure To determine the pools standings, the following criteria is applied: Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost) In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker applied: The teams were ranked by the most points gained per match as follows: Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser Where teams were still tied after an examination of the number of their victories and points gained, then the FIVB examined the results to break the tie in the following order: Sets quotient: if two or more teams were tied on the number of points gained, they were ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all sets won by the number of all sets lost. Points quotient: where the tie persisted based on the sets quotient, the teams were ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets. Where the tie persisted based on the points quotient, the tie was broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. Where the tie in points quotient was between three or more teams, these teams were ranked taking into consideration only the matches the teams in question were involved in.
Preliminary round Ranking
Week 1
Pool 1 All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool 2 All times are Argentina Time (UTC−03:00).
Pool 3 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 4 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Week 2
Pool 5 All times are China Standard Time (UTC+08:00).
Pool 6 All times are Yekaterinburg Time (UTC+05:00).
Pool 7 All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
Pool 8 All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00).
Week 3
Pool 9 All times are Western European Summer Time (UTC+01:00).
Pool 10 All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00).
Pool 11 All times are Iran Daylight Time (UTC+04:30).
Pool 12 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Week 4
Pool 13 All times are Central Daylight Time (UTC−05:00).
Pool 14 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Pool 15 All times are Iran Daylight Time (UTC+04:30).
Pool 16 All times are Amazon Time (UTC−04:00).
Week 5
Pool 17 All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10:00).
Pool 18 All times are Brasília Time (UTC−03:00).
Pool 19 All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00).
Pool 20 All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
Final round All times are Central Daylight Time (UTC−05:00).
Pool play
Pool A
Pool B
Final four
Semifinals
3rd place match
Final
Final standing
RankTeam45678910111213141516
14-man rosterDmitry Volkov, Egor Kliuka, Ivan Iakovlev, Viktor Poletaev, Ilyas Kurkaev, Dmitry Kovalev, Fedor Voronkov, Igor Kobzar (c), Denis Zemchenok, Anton Semyshev, Igor Filippov, Yaroslav Podlesnykh, Roman Martynyuk, Valentin GolubevHead coachTuomas Sammelvuo
Awards
Most valuable player
Best setter
Best outside spikers
Best middle blockers
Best opposite spiker
Best libero
Statistics leaders
Preliminary round Statistics leaders correct at the end of preliminary round.
Best ScorersPlayerAttacksBlocksServesTotal1 Amir Ghafour21421142492 Yūji Nishida18313232193 Ricardo Lucarelli Souza17314232104 Simon Hirsch17021132045 Yoandy Leal Hidalgo1612219202
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Bruno Lima177509832554.462 Amir Ghafour2145912039354.453 Ricardo Lucarelli173549131854.404 Sharone Vernon-Evans130328224453.285 Yūki Ishikawa1704011232252.80
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Graham Vigrass3163651590.532 Mohammad Mousavi3279561670.523 Ilyas Kurkaev3381731870.494 Svetoslav Gotsev2855481310.475 Ivan Iakovlev3268481480.47
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Egor Kliuka28371071720.412 Yūji Nishida23411241880.393 Ricardo Lucarelli Souza23331752310.304 Arshdeep Dosanjh17291301760.305 Simone Giannelli16211101470.29
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Saeid Marouf5291768812348.532 Brett Walsh4431375812147.643 Simone Giannelli35844588206.394 Arshdeep Dosanjh308106779955.405 Jan Zimmermann336669910415.25
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Santiago Danani14357452452.422 Fabio Balaso12135411972.163 Luke Perry12246442122.144 Julian Zenger12641612281.975 Jenia Grebennikov11827391841.87
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 Thales Hoss1042323135822.632 Alexandre Ferreira751719528720.213 Santiago Danani892322934119.354 Garrett Muagututia741522831718.615 Julian Zenger731922231417.20
Final round Statistics leaders correct at the end of final round.
Best ScorersPlayerSpikesBlocksServesTotal1 Bartosz Bednorz6586792 Matthew Anderson5034573 Taylor Sander4625534 Wallace De Souza4642525 Ricardo Lucarelli Souza3811049
Best AttackersPlayerSpikesFaultsShots1 Taylor Sander4610248057.502 Bartosz Bednorz65154412452.243 Dmitry Volkov3110206150.824 Milad Ebadipour264235349.065 Matthew Anderson50193310249.02
Best BlockersPlayerFaultsRebounds1 Maxwell Holt171917531.062 Ivan Iakovlev131720500.933 Mohammad Mousavi81516390.894 Norbert Huber141819510.885 Karol Kłos132518560.81
Best ServersPlayerAcesFaultsHits1 Egor Kliuka8931480.572 Ricardo Lucarelli Souza101046560.563 Bartosz Kwolek7944600.444 Karol Kłos7954700.445 Thibault Rossard356140.43
Best SettersPlayerFaults1 Saeid Marouf7131292037.892 Micah Christenson10111912936.313 Marcin Komenda9221972915.754 Fernando Kreling7941252084.395 Igor Kobzar5701592164.07
Best DiggersPlayerDigsFaultsReceptions1 Saeid Marouf2458372.672 Jakub Popiwczak291112521.813 Mohammad Reza Hazratpour1667291.784 Nicolas Rossard12514311.715 Valentin Golubev24125411.71
Best ReceiversPlayerExcellentsFaults1 Thales Hoss2767310619.812 Erik Shoji132466118.033 Taylor Sander197487416.224 Valentin Golubev165587913.925 Bartosz Kwolek1968811311.50
See also 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Challenger Cup
References
External links