The 2015 FIVB Men's World Cup was held from 8 to 23 September 2015 in Japan. The tournament served as a qualification process for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The top two teams, USA and Italy, qualified for the Olympics, and joined Brazil as they had already secured a berth as the host country.
United States secured the country's second title with 10 victories and only 1 loss. Matt Anderson was elected the Most Valuable Player. Moreover, there were 3 record breakings. Firstly, Thomas Edgar broke the highest score points in a single match record in Australia's win over Egypt with 50 points. Secondly, in Canada's win over Australia in five sets (32–34, 25–14, 25–21, 27–29, 20–18), two tournament records were broken: the longest match (2 hours and 49 minutes) and the highest scoring game (245 points).
Information The FIVB Volleyball World Cup began with signing a contract between Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) and Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) for hosting the tournament on 31 January 2013. In this event, Fuji TV had the right to broadcast the tournament. Moreover, the FIVB released the qualification process of the tournament:
Host country 2014 World champions 2 teams per continental confederation considered by World ranking, continental ranking, or continental championship But, on 10 March 2015, the FIVB announced a change of the continental events following each continental confederation's agreement. AVC used the World ranking as of 1 January 2015. CAVB used the African Championship. CEV used the European ranking as of 1 January 2015. CSV held a qualification tournament. NORCECA used the 2015 NORCECA Champions Cup.
Changes
Olympics places Only the winners and runners-up of the competition could secure the berths in the 2016 Summer Olympics. It was different from last edition which three medalists teams joined the Olympics. Qualification format The 2015 World Cup changed the format of the competition following the information above. There were not 2 wild card teams like 2011 edition. One of these spots belonged to the World champions, the other one belonged to the 2nd place of a continental event (2011 edition gave tickets to 4 of 5 continents, but 2015 edition gave tickets to all 5 continents). Competition format Competition rounds decreased from 4 in 2011 to 3. Combining rounds 1 (3 days) and 2 (2 days) in 2011 to 1 round of 5 days. The hosts also reduced the venues from 8 to 6. Pool standing procedure In 2011 edition, match points was the first criterion, but 2015 changed it to number of matches won. All criteria are shown in section Pool standing procedure. Net touch In this edition, players can not touch the whole net and antennas, not just the white band like in 2011 edition. Roster All 14 players (maximum 12 regular players and maximum 2 liberos) can play in every match and be named in score sheets. Individual awards Individual awards were given to players by positions, unlike previous editions when awards were given to players by volleyball skills. Attribution of points FIVB approved the proposal that in case the team hosting the Summer Olympics participated in a previous World Cup then they would keep the World Ranking points gained at the previous World Cup. Referee It was the first time in the competition when there was a challenge referee. In each match, there was a referee who controlled the challenge system.
Qualification 12 teams participated in the World Cup. Only teams who had not yet qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics could compete in the tournament.
Means of qualification Date Venue Qualified Host country 31 January 2013 Lausanne 2014 World Championship 30 Aug – 21 Sep 2014 Poland World Ranking for Asian Team 22 September 2014 Bangkok European Ranking 15 October 2014 Luxembourg South American Qualifier 19–23 May 2015 Cali 2015 NORCECA Champions Cup 21–23 May 2015 Detroit 2015 African Championship 22–30 July 2015 Cairo Total 12
Squads Maximum of 12 regular players and maximum of 2 liberos can be selected to play in the tournament. The rosters of 14 players of each team can be seen in the article below.
Venues Site First round Second round Third round A Hiroshima Osaka Tokyo Hiroshima Prefectural Sports Center Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium Yoyogi National Gymnasium Capacity: 4,750 Capacity: 7,000 Capacity: 13,291 B Hamamatsu Toyama Tokyo Hamamatsu Arena Toyama City Gymnasium Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium Capacity: 8,000 Capacity: 5,000 Capacity: 10,000
Format
The competition system of the 2015 World Cup for men was the single Round-Robin system. Each team played once against each of the 11 remaining teams.
The teams were divided into 2 pools of 6 teams each. In round 1, total 30 matches in 5 days, each teams played against the other teams from the same pool. For rounds 2 and 3, total 36 matches in 6 days, each team played against the teams from another pool.
The pools composition followed the Serpentine system based on the FIVB World Ranking where the host team was at the top position. There were no teams from CAVB on the drawing of lots day, the teams from CAVB were at the bottom position of pool composition. Numbers in brackets denoted the FIVB World Ranking as of 22 September 2014 except the hosts who ranked 21st.
Pool A Pool B (Hosts) (2) (4) (3) (5) (6) (13) (10) (14) (29) (19) (15)
Pool standing procedure Match points Number of matches won Sets ratio Points ratio Result of the last match between the tied teams
Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser
Results
All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00).
First round
Site A
Site B
Second round
Site A
Site B
Third round
Site A
Site B
Final standing
Rank Team 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics
Team roster Matt Anderson, Aaron Russell, Taylor Sander, David Lee (c), Paul Lotman, Kawika Shoji, Micah Christenson, Russell Holmes, Jayson Jablonsky, Murphy Troy, Maxwell Holt, David Smith, Erik Shoji, Dustin Watten Head coach John Speraw
Awards
Most valuable player Matt Anderson Best setter Micah Christenson Best outside spikers Osmany Juantorena Yūki Ishikawa Best middle blockers Sebastián Sole Mohammad Mousavi Best opposite spiker Ivan Zaytsev Best libero Erik Shoji
Statistics leaders Best Scorers Rank Name Points 1 Ahmed Abdelhay 230 2 Facundo Conte 214 3 Ivan Zaytsev 197 4 Kunihiro Shimizu 191 5 Bartosz Kurek 190 6 Yūki Ishikawa 188 7 Thomas Edgar 176 8 Matt Anderson 172 9 Dmitriy Muserskiy 157 10 Osmany Juantorena 156 Best Spikers Rank Name %Succ 1 Ivan Zaytsev 59.15 2 Osmany Juantorena 56.84 3 Dmitriy Muserskiy 55.93 4 Yūki Ishikawa 55.82 5 Ahmed Abdelhay 55.50 6 Maxim Mikhaylov 54.81 7 Amir Ghafour 53.55 8 Kunihiro Shimizu 53.53 9 Facundo Conte 53.40 10 Filippo Lanza 53.08 Best Blockers Rank Name Avg/set 1 Sebastián Sole 0.81 2 Mohammad Mousavi 0.80 3 Maxwell Holt 0.70 4 Matteo Piano 0.63 5 Facundo Conte 0.55 6 David Lee 0.54 7 Nehemiah Mote 0.54 8 Justin Duff 0.50 9 Abd Elhalim Mohamed Abou 0.49 10 0.48 Best Servers Rank Name Avg/set 1 Matt Anderson 0.70 2 Ivan Zaytsev 0.55 3 Maxim Mikhaylov 0.51 4 Mateusz Bieniek 0.48 5 Masahiro Yanagida 0.45 6 Bartosz Kurek 0.45 7 Facundo Conte 0.43 8 Micah Christenson 0.43 9 Ahmed Abdelhay 0.42 10 Dmitriy Muserskiy 0.41 Best Setters Rank Name Avg/set 1 Hideomi Fukatsu 10.17 2 Micah Christenson 9.57 3 Luciano De Cecco 8.93 4 Saeid Marouf 8.58 5 Simone Giannelli 7.58 6 TJ Sanders 7.20 7 José Carrasco 6.63 8 Fabian Drzyzga 5.90 9 Sergey Grankin 4.65 10 Grigory Sukochev 4.38 Best Diggers Rank Name Avg/set 1 Luke Perry 2.33 2 Takeshi Nagano 2.33 3 Erik Shoji 2.22 4 Massimo Colaci 2.11 5 Tayeb Korbosli 1.92 6 Paweł Zatorski 1.76 7 Mehdi Marandi 1.45 8 Moalla Ismail 1.39 9 Osmany Juantorena 1.39 10 Yūki Ishikawa 1.31 Best Receivers Rank Name %Eff 1 Badawy Mohamed Moneim 58.62 2 Milad Ebadipour 57.89 3 Mehdi Marandi 53.54 4 Rafał Buszek 52.20 5 Luciano Zornetta 52.17 6 Michał Kubiak 51.79 7 John Gordon Perrin 50.00 8 50.00 9 Nicholas Hoag 46.15 10 Osmany Juantorena 45.28
References
External links Official website Final standing Awards Statistics