Mercury rising in Belem with exciting semis next on Club Worlds agenda

2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship in Belem is about to reach its climax this weekend. Friday’s day off is just the calm before the storm, as Saturday’s program offers two exciting semifinals – Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie against Osaka Bluteon and Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia against Volei Renata Campinas – which will further determine the participants in Sunday’s medal matches.

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Club World Championship newcomers Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie of Poland will take on Japan’s Osaka Bluteon in the first of two semifinals, serving off at 15:00 local time (18:00 UTC).

The Polish team, qualified for the Club World Championship as silver medalists of Europe’s 2025 CEV Champions League, has had a fabulous rookie campaign so far. They topped the final Pool A standings undefeated. After squeezing out a narrow 3-2 victory over tournament hosts Renata in their opening game, they went on to deliver emphatic shutouts of the next two opponents in their pool – Qatar’s Al-Rayyan and Brazil’s Praia Clube Uberlandia.

American outside hitter Aaron Russell has been Aluron’s most prolific scorer of the pool stage and the tournament’s second best so far, with 49 points across the three matches played. With eight aces under his belt, Portuguese setter Miguel Tavares ranks as the best server of the competition.

Osaka Bluteon also qualified for the Club World Championship as continental silver medalists, after emerging Asia’s 2025 AVC Champions League runners-up. When they first participated in a Club World Championship in 2013 under their old name Panasonic Panthers, they finished in fifth place. Having qualified for the semifinals in 2025 is already their best result in history. They did so after finishing second in Pool B. Osaka stunned defending world champions Sada Cruzeiro Volei Belo Horizonte of Brazil in emphatic straight sets in their opening game. Then they narrowly lost to the previous world champions, Italy’s Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia, by a nail-biting 23-21 in the tie-breaker of what proved to be the deciding clash for the first place in the pool, and finally cruised to a straight-set victory over Libya’s Swehly Misrata.

Even without playing in that third match, Bluteon’s Cuban outside hitter Miguel Lopez still emerged as the team’s best and the tournament’s third best scorer of the pool stage, with a total of 42 points from the other two matches. Libero Tomohiro Yamamoto, on the other hand, has been the best digger of the competition, with 24 successful saves to his name.

In the second semifinal, tournament hosts Volei Renata Campinas will try to stand up to mighty Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia of Italy. The first whistle is scheduled at 18:30 (21:30) on Saturday.

Arriving in Belem as the reigning European champions, Sir are making their third appearance at the Club World Championships. At both of their previous participations, in 2022 and in 2023, the Block Devils claimed the world title. They have won all of their matches in Belem so far, topping Pool B unbeaten. In between sweeping their encounters with Swehly and reigning world chams Sada Cruzeiro, Sir battled it out for a nerve-wracking five-set victory over Osaka deep into the overtime of the tie-breaker.

The Italian team’s best scorer so far, Tunisian opposite Wassim Ben Tara, has tallied 39 points and stands fourth in the tournament’s overall individual ranking. Sir’s Argentinean middle blocker Agustin Loser leads the best blockers ranking with 14 stuffs to his name, double that of the closest contender – also a Sir player, setter Simone Giannelli. Giannelli himself tops the best setters ranking with a total of 117 successful sets.

Renata are competing at a Club World Championship for the second time. In 2022, they finished in sixth place out of six participating teams. Now, they are already in the semifinals, after finishing Pool A runners-up. In their first game, they pushed Aluron to the overtime of the tie-breaker before conceding a five-set defeat. In an all-Brazilian duel with Praia, they celebrated a four-set victory, which eventually proved sufficient for advancement to the semifinals. In a game with no bearing on the pool standings, Renata lost the last match of the pool stage to Al-Rayyan in straight sets.

Renata players have topped three of the competition’s individual rankings after the first phase. Outside hitter Adriano Xavier is the tournament’s best scorer with 50 points and best attacker with 47 successful swings, while another two Renata athletes – outside Mauricio Borges and libero Lucas Provenzano (Lukinha) – stand jointly on top of the best receivers chart with 21 perfect receptions apiece.

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