2019 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League explained

Competition:	FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League
Continent:	World
Year:	2019
Host:	United States
City:	Chicago (final round)
Dates:	31 May – 14 July
Teams:	16
Confederations:	4
Venues:	21
Cities:	21
Champions:	RUS
Title Number:	2
Second:	USA
Third:	POL
Fourth:	BRA
Mvp:	Matt Anderson
Setter:	Micah Christenson
Opposite Spiker:	Matt Anderson
Libero:	Erik Shoji
Matches:	130
Last:	2018 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League
Next:	2021 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League

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.^[1] The competition was held between May and July 2019, and the final round took place in the Credit Union 1 Arena, Chicago, United States.^{[2] [3]} 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.^[4]

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.

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.^[1] Portugal replaced South Korea after winning the 2018 Challenger Cup.^[4]

Country	Confederation	Designation	Previous appearances			Previous best performance
			Total	First	Last
	CSV	Core team	1	2018	2018	14th place (2018)
	AVC	Challenger team	1	2018	2018	13th place (2018)
	CSV	Core team	1	2018	2018	4th place (2018)
	CEV	Challenger team	1	2018	2018	11th place (2018)
	NORCECA	Challenger team	1	2018	2018	7th place (2018)
	AVC	Core team	1	2018	2018	15th place (2018)
	CEV	Core team	1	2018	2018	Runners-up (2018)
	CEV	Core team	1	2018	2018	9th place (2018)
	AVC	Core team	1	2018	2018	10th place (2018)
	CEV	Core team	1	2018	2018	8th place (2018)
	AVC	Core team	1	2018	2018	12th place (2018)
	CEV	Core team	1	2018	2018	5th place (2018)
	CEV	Challenger team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	1	2018	2018	Champions (2018)
	CEV	Core team	1	2018	2018	5th place (2018)
	NORCECA	Core team	1	2018	2018	3rd place (2018)

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.^[1] 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.^[1]

Preliminary round

Week 1
width=25%	Pool 1 China	width=25%	Pool 2 Argentina	width=25%	Pool 3 Poland	width=25%	Pool 4 Serbia
Week 2
width=25%	Pool 5 China	width=25%	Pool 6 Russia	width=25%	Pool 7 Japan	width=25%	Pool 8 Canada
Week 3
width=25%	Pool 9 Portugal	width=25%	Pool 10 Bulgaria	width=25%	Pool 11 Iran	width=25%	Pool 12 France
Week 4
width=25%	Pool 13 United States	width=25%	Pool 14 Italy	width=25%	Pool 15 Iran	width=25%	Pool 16 Brazil
Week 5
width=25%	Pool 17 Australia	width=25%	Pool 18 Brazil	width=25%	Pool 19 Bulgaria	width=25%	Pool 20 Germany

Final round

width=50%	Pool A	width=50%	Pool 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.^[5]

Preliminary round

width=100% colspan=4	Week 1
width=25%	Pool 1	width=25%	Pool 2	width=25%	Pool 3	width=25%	Pool 4
Jiangmen, China	Mendoza, Argentina	Katowice, Poland	Novi Sad, Serbia
Jiangmen Sports Center Gymnasium	Aconcagua Arena	Spodek	SPC Vojvodina
Capacity: 8,500	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 11,500	Capacity: 6,987
width=100% colspan=4	Week 2
Pool 5	Pool 6	Pool 7	Pool 8
Ningbo, China	Ufa, Russia	Tokyo, Japan	Ottawa, Canada
Beilun Gymnasium	Ufa Arena	Musashino Forest Sports Plaza	TD Place Arena
Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 8,250	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 9,500
width=100% colspan=4	Week 3
Pool 9	Pool 10	Pool 11	Pool 12
Gondomar, Portugal	Varna, Bulgaria	Urmia, Iran	Cannes, France
Multiusos de Gondomar	Palace of Culture and Sports	Ghadir Arena	Palais des Victoires
Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 6,000	Capacity: 6,000	Capacity: 4,000
width=100% colspan=4	Week 4
Pool 13	Pool 14	Pool 15	Pool 16
Hoffman Estates, United States	Milan, Italy	Ardabil, Iran	Cuiabá, Brazil
Sears Centre Arena	PalaLido	Rezazadeh Stadium	Ginásio Aecim Tocantins
Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 5,420	Capacity: 6,000	Capacity: 12,000
width=100% colspan=4	Week 5
Pool 17	Pool 18	Pool 19	Pool 20
Brisbane, Australia	Brasilia, Brazil	Plovdiv, Bulgaria	Leipzig, Germany
Queensland State Netball Centre	Nilson Nelson Gymnasium	Kolodruma	Arena Leipzig
Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 11,105	Capacity: 6,100	Capacity: 12,000

Final round

All matches
Chicago, United States
Credit Union 1 Arena
Capacity: 10,000

Competition schedule

●

Preliminary round

●

Final round

Pool standing procedure

To determine the pools standings, the following criteria is applied:^[6]

1. Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost)
2. 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
3. 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.

Squads

See main article: 2019 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League squads.

The 16 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 25 players, which every week's 14-player roster must be selected from. Each country must declare its 14-player roster two days before the start of each week's round-robin competition.

Preliminary round

Ranking

Week 1

Pool 1

• All times are China Standard Time .

Pool 2

• All times are Argentina Time .

Pool 3

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Pool 4

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Week 2

Pool 5

• All times are China Standard Time .

Pool 6

• All times are Yekaterinburg Time .

Pool 7

• All times are Japan Standard Time .

Pool 8

• All times are Eastern Daylight Time .

Week 3

Pool 9

• All times are Western European Summer Time .

Pool 10

• All times are Eastern European Summer Time .

Pool 11

• All times are Iran Daylight Time .

Pool 12

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Week 4

Pool 13

• All times are Central Daylight Time .

Pool 14

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Pool 15

• All times are Iran Daylight Time .

Pool 16

• All times are Amazon Time .

Week 5

Pool 17

• All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time .

Pool 18

• All times are Brasília Time .

Pool 19

• All times are Eastern European Summer Time .

Pool 20

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Final round

• All times are Central Daylight Time .

Pool play

Pool B

Final four

Final

Final standing

width=40	Rank	width=140	Team
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Source: VNL 2019 final standings

14-man roster
Dmitry 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 Golubev
Head coach
Tuomas 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.^[7]

Best Scorers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Attacks	width=20	Blocks	width=20	Serves	width=20	Total
1	Amir Ghafour	214	21	14	249
2	Yūji Nishida	183	13	23	219
3	Ricardo Lucarelli Souza	173	14	23	210
4	Simon Hirsch	170	21	13	204
5	Yoandy Leal Hidalgo	161	22	19	202

Best Attackers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Faults	width=20	Shots	width=20		width=20
1	Bruno Lima	177	50	98	325	54.46
2	Amir Ghafour	214	59	120	393	54.45
3	Ricardo Lucarelli	173	54	91	318	54.40
4	Sharone Vernon-Evans	130	32	82	244	53.28
5	Yūki Ishikawa	170	40	112	322	52.80

Best Blockers
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20	Rebounds	width=20		width=20
1	Graham Vigrass	31	63	65	159	0.53
2	Mohammad Mousavi	32	79	56	167	0.52
3	Ilyas Kurkaev	33	81	73	187	0.49
4	Svetoslav Gotsev	28	55	48	131	0.47
5	Ivan Iakovlev	32	68	48	148	0.47

Best Servers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Aces	width=20	Faults	width=20	Hits	width=20		width=20
1	Egor Kliuka	28	37	107	172	0.41
2	Yūji Nishida	23	41	124	188	0.39
3	Ricardo Lucarelli Souza	23	33	175	231	0.30
4	Arshdeep Dosanjh	17	29	130	176	0.30
5	Simone Giannelli	16	21	110	147	0.29

Best Setters
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Saeid Marouf	529	17	688	1234	8.53
2	Brett Walsh	443	13	758	1214	7.64
3	Simone Giannelli	358	4	458	820	6.39
4	Arshdeep Dosanjh	308	10	677	995	5.40
5	Jan Zimmermann	336	6	699	1041	5.25

Best Diggers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Digs	width=20	Faults	width=20	Receptions	width=20		width=20
1	Santiago Danani	143	57	45	245	2.42
2	Fabio Balaso	121	35	41	197	2.16
3	Luke Perry	122	46	44	212	2.14
4	Julian Zenger	126	41	61	228	1.97
5	Jenia Grebennikov	118	27	39	184	1.87

Best Receivers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Excellents	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Thales Hoss	104	23	231	358	22.63
2	Alexandre Ferreira	75	17	195	287	20.21
3	Santiago Danani	89	23	229	341	19.35
4	Garrett Muagututia	74	15	228	317	18.61
5	Julian Zenger	73	19	222	314	17.20

Final round

Statistics leaders correct at the end of final round.^[8]

Best Scorers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Blocks	width=20	Serves	width=20	Total
1	Bartosz Bednorz	65	8	6	79
2	Matthew Anderson	50	3	4	57
3	Taylor Sander	46	2	5	53
4	Wallace De Souza	46	4	2	52
5	Ricardo Lucarelli Souza	38	1	10	49

Best Attackers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Faults	width=20	Shots	width=20		width=20
1	Taylor Sander	46	10	24	80	57.50
2	Bartosz Bednorz	65	15	44	124	52.24
3	Dmitry Volkov	31	10	20	61	50.82
4	Milad Ebadipour	26	4	23	53	49.06
5	Matthew Anderson	50	19	33	102	49.02

Best Blockers
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20	Rebounds	width=20		width=20
1	Maxwell Holt	17	19	17	53	1.06
2	Ivan Iakovlev	13	17	20	50	0.93
3	Mohammad Mousavi	8	15	16	39	0.89
4	Norbert Huber	14	18	19	51	0.88
5	Karol Kłos	13	25	18	56	0.81

Best Servers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Aces	width=20	Faults	width=20	Hits	width=20		width=20
1	Egor Kliuka	8	9	31	48	0.57
2	Ricardo Lucarelli Souza	10	10	46	56	0.56
3	Bartosz Kwolek	7	9	44	60	0.44
4	Karol Kłos	7	9	54	70	0.44
5	Thibault Rossard	3	5	6	14	0.43

Best Setters
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Saeid Marouf	71	3	129	203	7.89
2	Micah Christenson	101	1	191	293	6.31
3	Marcin Komenda	92	2	197	291	5.75
4	Fernando Kreling	79	4	125	208	4.39
5	Igor Kobzar	57	0	159	216	4.07

Best Diggers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Digs	width=20	Faults	width=20	Receptions	width=20		width=20
1	Saeid Marouf	24	5	8	37	2.67
2	Jakub Popiwczak	29	11	12	52	1.81
3	Mohammad Reza Hazratpour	16	6	7	29	1.78
4	Nicolas Rossard	12	5	14	31	1.71
5	Valentin Golubev	24	12	5	41	1.71

Best Receivers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Excellents	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Thales Hoss	27	6	73	106	19.81
2	Erik Shoji	13	2	46	61	18.03
3	Taylor Sander	19	7	48	74	16.22
4	Valentin Golubev	16	5	58	79	13.92
5	Bartosz Kwolek	19	6	88	113	11.50

See also

• 2019 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League
• 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's Challenger Cup
• 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup

Notes and References

1. Web site: VNL winners to face world champions in 2019 . 23 October 2018 . . 3 February 2019 . 23 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190523211117/http://www.fivb.org/en/Volleyball/viewPressRelease.asp?No=79822&Language=en . live .
2. Web site: USA to host next three editions of Men’s FIVB Volleyball Nations League Finals. 8 July 2018. FIVB. 8 July 2018. 10 September 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180910105151/http://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/news/usa-to-host-next-three-editions-of?id=76401. dead.
3. Web site: Chicago to Host FIVB Men's VNL Finals. 13 March 2019. USA Volleyball. 13 March 2018. 12 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200912201604/https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Features/2019/March/12/Chicago-to-Host-FIVB-Mens-VNL-Finals. dead.
4. Web site: Portugal join world's elite for 2019 Men's VNL. FIVB. 24 June 2018. 24 June 2018. 23 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190523211103/http://challengercup.volleyball.world/en/news/portugal-join-worlds-elite-for-2019-mens?id=76305. dead.
5. Web site: HostCities - FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2019 . . 27 March 2019 . 7 April 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190407113431/http://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/competition/hostcities . dead .
6. Web site: Pools Information - Pools Ranking Criteria . volleyballworld.com . 28 July 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210524172730/https://en.volleyballworld.com/en/vnl/2019/competition/poolsinformation . 2021-05-24.
7. Web site: Men's Statistics - FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2019. FIVB.org. 30 June 2019. 2 July 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190702201503/https://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/men/statistics. dead.
8. Web site: Men's Statistics - FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2019. FIVB.org. 15 July 2019. 3 August 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190803130149/https://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/mensfinals/competition/statistics. dead.

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