The schedule for Olympic Volleyball tournament matches has been confirmed. A match between Italy and Russia is set to start out the women’s Olympic tournament on August 9 at the Beijing Institute of Technology. Serbia and Russia will open the next day’s men’s competition at the same venue.

The 12 participating teams will be divided into two pools.

Women’s Tournament

Pool A: 1. China 2. Cuba 3. USA 4. Japan 5. Poland 6. Venezuela
Pool B: 1. Brazil 2. Italy 3. Russia 4. Serbia 5. Kazakhstan 6. Algeria

Men’s Tournament

Pool A: 1. China 2. USA 3. Bulgaria 4. Italy 5. Japan 6. Venezuela
Pool B: 1. Brazil 2. Russia 3. Poland 4. Serbia 5. Egypt 6. Germany

Quarterfinals

The top four teams of each pool will advance to the quarterfinals, which start on August 19. The competition format is as follows:

A1 vs. B4
B1 vs. A4

A drawing of lots shall decide the competitors of A2 and A3 and determine which of these two teams will face B2 and which will play against B3.

Semifinals

The top four winners of the quarterfinals will qualify for the semifinals as follows:
Winner A1/B4 vs. Winner (A2/B3 or B2, depending on draw)
Winner B1/A4 vs. Winner (A3/B3 or B2, depending on draw)

Finals

The top two winners of the semifinals will advance to the gold medal match. The other two teams from the semifinals will play it out for the bronze.

from: beijing2008.cn

Italy notched up a narrow victory Sunday in the final qualifying round for the Olympics men’s volleyball, securing a berth in the Beijing Olympics.
Italy edged out Argentina by 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 15-5, taking the first place in the eight-team round with seven wins and no defeats.
It is the ninth time in a row that Italy has won the ticket for the Olympics since 1976.

from: xinhuanet.com

Poland and Russia will play tomorrow’s final of the Women’s European Olympic Qualification Tournament here in Halle, Germany. In Saturday’s semifinals, Russia beat host Germany in straight sets, whereas Poland defeated Serbia 3:1. Only the winner of Sunday’s final will get the invaluable tickets to Beijing 2008.
2008 Olympics will be without the German national team. Germany failed to spring a major surprise as they missed out on the Olympic qualification following a 0-3 semifinal loss to Russia. For the first time since 1992, Germany failed to qualify for the Olympic Games.
“Poland were better, just as the result suggests“, said Serbia Coach Zoran Terzic. Their advantage is their individual class which helps them to play on a high level also when making substitutions. We still have the chance to qualify for the Olympics and I am sure we will see Poland again in Beijing. Serbia captain Vesna Citakovic added: “It was a good match from either side. We committed more easy mistakes in some very important situations and that’s why we lost.”
Poland coach Marco Bonitta was happy: “We played a good match and I am really pleased with our performance. It showed today that we do not just have six or seven good players but twelve, which is a big advantage. Tomorrow, Russia will be favorites, but today we showed just 80 percent of our capability, even though we played very well. If we can do even better tomorrow everything will be possible.”
“It was an important match for us”, stated Poland captain Milena Rosner, “and I am happy about the win but tomorrow is what counts. Then it will be “to be or not to be.”

from: beijing2008.cn 

BEIJING, Dec. 11 — China’s women’s volleyball team has high hopes of defending its gold medal at next year’s Olympic Games, but a chief official from the sport’s governing body downplayed China’s chances, admitting that no podium finish would also be acceptable. “The worst result we are ready to accept is fifth place,” said Xu Li, director of the Volleyball Administrative Center. “I am not kidding you. The chances of winning a gold, a silver, a bronze, or fourth or fifth place are all the same - it’s 20 percent apiece.”

Xu and head coach Chen Zhonghe have been scouting potential players in the national volleyball league but are far from satisfied with the performances of some Olympic hopefuls. “We are short of spikers and setters,” admitted coach Chen. “We are looking for such players to make the team up. But there are few coming up in the league.
“Some of the players have good potential but are too young. They have no experience in big competitions and are not mentally strong. We do not have enough time to grow them up.”
Chen blamed the lack of qualified players on the inadequate development of the sport’s grassroots levels.
“The level of our national league is not reaching high standard. There are not enough people playing the sport in China. “In the US there are more than 100 pro teams. But in China we only have just over 100 pro players. It’s a huge gap and makes the selection of good players difficult.”
Chen said emerging powerhouses like the US - which is coached by former Chinese star Lang Ping - the Netherlands and Italy have joined the traditional elites like Cuba, Brazil and Russia, making the battle for gold in Beijing all the more intense. “I came to Japan last month and watched the World Cup. It’s so competitive. Italy and the US are showing impressive improvements in the tournament. The number of rivals to challenge China’s defense is increasing.” Struggling with injury and inconsistency with a new team after the 2004 Athens Games, the national team suffered a string of losses to lowly ranked teams in this year’s Grand Prix preliminary rounds and stumbled into August’s finals in a disappointing eighth place.
The squad did launch a strong return to form as it clinched second place with four straight wins, including three-set sweeps against Russia and Brazil. But its loss to finals-winner Netherlands and its poor record against Italy and Brazil throughout the year sound a clear warning to China’s Olympic prospects.

from. xinhuanet.com 

Brazil on Sunday remained on its throne as the world’s top volleyball powerhouse. The Brazilians, which have more-or-less dominated the sport since 2001, won their second straight World Cup by easily overcoming host Japan 3-1 before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,000, a match punctuated by the Brazilians’ samba celebrations and high-flying game. Tokyo has apparently turned into a “home venue” for the Brazilians as they also won the previous world cup (2003) again in the Japanese metropolis, the same city where they were crowned World Champions in 2006 and where they won the Grand Champions Cup (2005). The reigning Olympic and World Champions Brazil are the second team to win back-to-back World Cups after the former Soviet Union, which won the trophy in 1977 and 1981, along with 1965 and 1991. Russia and Bulgaria picked up the two other berths for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Russia recovered from its previous losses to Bulgaria and Brazil by beating the USA team 3-2 in the top match of the 11th day. Wild card entry Bulgaria easily defeated South American runner up Argentina 3-0. Meanwhile, Spain notched its seventh victory by defeating, in 3-1 sets, Tunisia (1-10), while the World Cup closed with two surprises: Wild card entry Korea (2-9) beat NORCECA runner up Puerto Rico (5-6) in 3-2 sets, and African Champion Egypt (3-8) overcame Asian Champion Australia (4-7) in four sets.

The FIVB President, Dr. Rubén Acosta, awards the MVP Giba

Bulgaria booked a place in the 2008 Olympic Games by sweeping Argentina 3-0 in the first match of the day at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The tournament wild cards, ranked seventh in the world, beat the South American vice champions 25-17, 25-22, 25-23 to finish the 12-team round-robin with a 9-2 record, good enough to secure a podium finish and a place in Beijing. Argentina, ranked ninth in the world, ended with a losing 5-6 record. Head Coach Martin Stoev said: “For sure this was not our best game, but the most important thing was to gain the victory. The main goal was to gain the ticket for the Olympics. This was the key point, and we came up in this short period”. Meanwhile Bulgarian Captain Plamen Konstantinov stated: “I am very happy about this victory and about this tournament because finally we reached the Olympics. This was the most important tournament for us of this year and maybe of the last four years because we were preparing all those years to reach the Olympics. So this is a big day for Bulgarian volleyball. I hope we will make a great Olympic Games.”

Russia joined Brazil and Bulgaria in the Beijing Olympics by beating USA 3-2 in a World Cup decider at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. The Russians won 25-23, 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 15-8 to improve to 9-2 and leave USA stranded on 8-3 and out of the top three. It was a wonderful match for the fans, full of crashing blocks and occasionally heating over due to the fierce rivalry between the teams and the massive prize at stake. Russian player Semen Poltavskiy said: “I do not have anything in particular to say about the game, other than that it was very important to win because it meant we could go to the Olympics. We achieved that and that is the only thing that matters. We are always amazed at the excellent organization in Japan.”

After an early struggle, World No. 1 Brazil put Japan in their place 3-1 in the last match of the World Cup at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Sunday night. The reigning Olympic and world champions recovered from losing the first set to emerge victorious 23-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-18 and defend their World Cup title with a 10-1 record. Japan, playing before a crowd of 10,000, dropped to 3-8 but emerged from their last match with a lot of credit and pride in tact. They were also leading the fourth set 7-2, but the seven points were wiped out due to a technicality on the line-up rotation. Head Coach Bernardo Rezende said: “It was a tough match after a tough match yesterday against Russia, which was like a final. We suffered from the beginning and lacked a bit of energy and focus. Japan played loose and calm with no responsibility, but we managed to fight to the end and win under this pressure. At the start of the fourth set Japan lost seven points due to the referee’s mistake. We have two World Championships, two World Cups and our aim is to end this cycle with two Olympic gold medals. Now we are at the end of the seventh year with this team, and one more year to go. This is a great conclusion to the seventh year. We have to party for one night and from tomorrow think about Beijing and improve what we are lacking.”

European Champions Spain downed African Vice Champions Tunisia in four sets on Sunday to end the men’s World Cup with a 7-4 record. Man of the match Guillermo Falasca inspired the Spanish to a 25-16, 25-22, 21-25, 25-18 win at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo, handing the Tunisians their 10th defeat of the tournament. The Spanish were comfortably in control from the start against Tunisia, with Jose Luis Molto’s spike putting the Europeans five ahead at the first technical timeout. Spanish captain Rafael Pascual said: “Today was the last day and we are satisfied with this result. Maybe we will finish fifth in the rankings and this helps us in the qualifying for the Olympics and helps us with our effort in getting a good result. I’d like to thank the FIVB for the good decision of choosing Japan for hosting the event”.

Asian Wild Cards Korea showed real heart to beat NORCECA Vice Champions Puerto Rico in a rollercoaster five-set match. The Koreans won 21-25, 25-18, 26-24, 20-25, 15-8 for only their second win out of 11, while the Puerto Ricans dropped to 5-6. Man of the match Moon Sung-Min inspired Korea with some brilliant play throughout the game and was a popular choice among the pro-Korean crowd. Korean captain Shin Young-Soo said: “We hadn’t had good results until now so we have been frustrated but we could do our best today. I want to thank all the players for their effort. The members of the team by next May (the time of the next Olympic qualifying tournament) will be different but the most important thing now is to improve our defensive skills. In our team there are a lot of young players so it is necessary for us to improve our skills in dealing with moments of crisis”.

African Champions Egypt downed Asian Champions Australia in four sets. Man of the match Abdalla Ahmed recovered from a head injury in the early stages to inspire Egypt to a 25-14, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22 victory at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo. It was Egypt’s third victory of the tournament, while Australia dropped to 4-7. Egyptian head coach Ahmed Zakaria Ahmed said: “Today was the best result in the Egypt’s history for volleyball. If we could have played like this from the beginning our end position would have been better. I’m very happy today and we thank the organization and the Japanese and we will come back for the World League and play Japan.”

FINAL STANDINGS

1. Brazil
2. Russia
3. Bulgaria
4. USA
5. Spain
6. Puerto Rico
7. Argentina
8. Australia
9. Japan
10. Egypt
11. Korea
12. Tunisia

from: beijing2008.com

Bulgaria on Friday ended Russia’s undefeated streak, leaving the latter and Brazil with a share of first place. Bulgaria and the USA, along with leaders Russia and Brazil, will now vie for the first three spots at the world cup that lead to a berth for the Beijing Olympics next year. Bulgaria’s major upset came during the ninth day of play at the ongoing World Cup in Japan. The wild card entry team beat previously undefeated Russia 3-2 in a thrilling match. In another outstanding match, Brazil, the current titleholder, easily defeated rival Argentina 3-0 during a swift and decisive victory that more-or-less leads down the road to Beijing. The NORCECA champions, the USA team, beat host Japan 3-0 before a partisan crowd of 10,000 spectators. In other matches, European Champions Spain beat Australia 3-0, Puerto Rico defeated Tunisia 3-0 and Egypt posted its first victory over Republic of Korea 3-1. With the results on Friday, Brazil and Russia lead the standings with eight victories in nine matches. With Friday’s result the race for the first three spots, which lead to a direct berth for next year’s Beijing Olympic Games, is wide open, with the matches over the next two days determining the title and the Olympic berths. The showdown of the tournament comes tomorrow with the Russia-Brazil game, while on Sunday the Russian team faces the USA. Meanwhile, Brazil on Sunday will face Japan. The USA teams goes up against Argentina on Saturday, while Bulgaria will face Japan the same day, followed by Argentina on Sunday.

Russian Yury Berezhko spikes against Bulgarian Nikolov, Ivanov and Kaziyski

The European heavyweight contest went the distance at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Friday before Bulgaria landed the knockout blow in the tiebreak, beating Russia 3-2 in a bruising encounter. The two Euro giants slugged it out point for point, set by set, until Vladimir Nikolov, rising on the right, beat the Russian block to end it. With the 25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12 victory, Bulgaria improved to 7-2 and took a massive step on the road to Beijing. Russia suffered their first defeat of the World Cup and dropped to 8-1. Bulgarian Head Coach Martin Stoev said: “I was very happy about the victory today. It was a very important match for us in this tournament, and we have not beaten Russia for four years. Brazil and Russia have one defeat, and we have two, so we need to win the two remaining games.”

Brazil swept Argentina 3-0 in the South American “derby”. The World Cup holders continued their dominance over their regional rivals with a business-like 25-20, 25-22, 25-16 victory to improve their win-loss record to 8-1. After losing their first match of the tournament 3-0 to the United States, the reigning Olympic and world champions have won eight straight without dropping a set. Argentina, who qualified for the World Cup as South American vice champions behind Brazil, dropped to 5-4 with two matches to play. Brazilian Captain Giba said: “It was a good match today. Brazil played very well. Argentina is so difficult to play against because they have a very good defense. All the time I say forget about this match and think of the next match because all the time the next match is the most difficult.”

The United States maintained their hopes of a World Cup podium finish by beating Japan 3-0. The Americans improved their win-loss record to 7-2 with an impressive 25-18, 27-25, 25-19 victory over Japan, who missed one set point in the second frame and slipped to 3-6. Having suffered two defeats already, to Puerto Rico and Spain, the United States needed three wins from the final phase to stand a chance of qualifying for Beijing, especially after Bulgaria’s victory over Russia. Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon: “Of course we are very happy to come away with a victory this evening. It is always tough playing Japan in Japan and tonight was no exception. After the two days off our team was able to get back into a pretty good rhythm. Once we settled down into a good service rhythm and got some block and defense going we played pretty well.”

In Site B, NORCECA vice champions Puerto Rico crushed Tunisia in straight sets at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo. The Puerto Ricans, lead well by man of the match Hector Soto and Jose Rivera, won 25-17, 25-17, 25-23 to improve to 5-4, while Tunisia dropped to 1-8. With two matches left to play, the Tunisians will be hoping for a victory against fellow strugglers Egypt while Puerto will be confident, on this form, of finishing with two more victories against Australia and Republic of Korea. They are aiming to finish as high as fourth place. Puerto Rican Head Coach Carlos Cardona said: “Today we were supposed to have a tough game but we played well. We tend to lose concentration if we have more than 24 hours off but we were very happy to win the first match in Tokyo”.

At the ninth time of asking, Egypt earned their first victory in the men’s World Cup by coming from a set down to beat Republic of Korea 21-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-22. Man of the match Abdalla Ahmed inspired the North Africans alongside Mohamed Gabal as Republic of Korea dropped to 1-8. Cue delirious celebrations from Egypt. They’d finally won one. “It was the first win for our team and it is mentally good for the players. The first reason why we won is that we had a strong block. Tomorrow, it will be special because we play Tunisia and we hope to win for the next two matches”, said Egyptian Head Coach Zakaria Ahmed.

European champions Spain proved too strong for Asian champions Australia in a final-round match-up. Man of the match Manuel Sevillano eclipsed Aussie danger man Paul Carroll as the Spanish won 25-21, 25-19, 25-20 to improve to 5-4, while the Aussies dropped to 3-6. Spanish Head Coach Marcelo Mendez stated: “We were a little bit tired but it’s good to be able to maintain our concentration in this condition, I think our teamwork is getting better and I’m happy being in this round in this condition. Our service was good although we had a few mistakes but overall it was good and I was happy we could win”.

COMPETITION SCHEDULE (4th ROUND)

Tokyo (A) 01 Dec 14:05 05:05 Argentina-USA
Tokyo (A) 01 Dec 16:35 07:35 Brazil-Russia
Tokyo (A) 01 Dec 19:30 10:30 Japan-Bulgaria
Tokyo (B) 01 Dec 12:35 03:35 Egypt-Tunisia
Tokyo (B) 01 Dec 15:05 06:05 Spain-KOR
Tokyo (B) 01 Dec 18:05 09:05 Australia-Puerto Rico
Tokyo (A) 02 Dec 14:05 05:05 Argentina-Bulgaria
Tokyo (A) 02 Dec 16:35 07:35 Russia-USA
Tokyo (A) 02 Dec 19:30 10:30 Japan-Brazil
Tokyo (B) 02 Dec 12:05 03:05 Spain-Tunisia
Tokyo (B) 02 Dec 14:35 05:35 KOR-Puerto Rico
Tokyo (B) 02 Dec 17:35 08:35 Australia-Egypt

(Credit: FIVB. Click here for further information.)
From: beijing2008.cn