USA to match Poland in second round of MWCH

LODZ, Poland, September 9 2014- Norceca representative United States will match hosts Poland in the beginning of FIVB Men’s World Championship second round.

These teams have met five times at the World Championship. Poland won on four occasions, USA on one.   The lone US victory over Poland was their last meeting in the competition. In 1986, USA prevailed 3-0.  Poland last defeated United States at the World Championship in 1974 in Mexico.

Poland finished top in Pool A and was the only team to emerge from the group phase with a maximum 15 points.

Poland have won 15 of the 16 sets they have played in this tournament. The only dropped set by Poland at this World Championship came in the match against Cameroon.

No host nation has won the World Championship since 1966, when Czechoslovakia performed the feat. Meanwhile, in their last nine World Championship matches, USA have alternated wins and defeats.

United States reached this stage by finishing third in Pool D, losing to France and Iran and beating Italy, Belgium and Puerto Rico. In the first group stage, Maxwell Holt ranked second among tournament leaders in average blocks per set (0.90) and stuff blocks (19).

David Lee - USA captain: “Regardless the importance of this tournament, playing against Poland for any occasion was and will be great show, with such good organisation and passionate fans. We are excited to face them in such a great atmosphere.”

John Speraw - USA coach: “We are excited to be here and move on in this competition. This has been very challenging so far and we didn't play our best, but we are excited to compete again and hopefully show a better performance. We are waiting to play Poland; we were always enjoying games here in front of thousands of Polish fans even if they were supporting the host team. As for us, we don't know the reason of our bad start and we just need to be better.”