Five of the seven red and whites called up for the VNL took part with their respective national teams in the first stage of the event. The performances of Fabio Balaso and Luciano De Cecco stand out, both in the ideal sextet after the first four games based on statistics.
Waiting for the central cook Simone Anzani to join the group in the next steps, lights and shadows for Italy in Canada, but with a growing finale. The two opening defeats against Argentina and the United States were compensated by 3-1 successes with Cuba and Germany. Among the protagonists of the blue group are two red and whites: the libero Fabio Balaso, always on the spot and first in the VNL in the ranking of effectiveness for defensive interventions with 47 saves on an opponent’s attack and 7 perfect receptions, with a success rate of 76% in the fundamentals of defense, and the spiker Mattia Bottolo, who has gained more and more space by offering a good performance with 41 total points, of which 37 from attack, 2 from blocks and 2 from nine meters.
Three wins and one defeat for Argentina of Luciano De Cecco, captain of Cucine Lube Civitanova, who ended the first week of VNL as the best setter of the tournament. After having put Italy in serious difficulty with his lifts, overcoming the Azzurri with the maximum gap, De Cecco saw the victory in the South American derby with Brazil vanish at the tie break, but he made up for it thanks to the 3-1 hosts Canada and tamed a combative Holland at the photo finish. Thanks to 87 decisive lifts, only 3 errors and another 287 interventions, Luciano was the busiest playmaker, but also with the highest average per game (21.75).
The Bulgaria of the red and white spiker Alex Nikolov gave up just one success in Japan, 3-0 over Slovenia in the second round, while it fell at the tie break with China on its debut, it was recovered at the tie break by Poland on the third day and fell with the maximum gap against the Japanese hosts. It was Nikolov who saved himself among his own, currently the tenth best scorer in the VNL with 61 points, of which 57 in attack, 2 for blocks and 2 for service. The athlete gave the feeling of being able to grow further.
