While men’s Volleyball Nations League 2023 champions Poland consolidated their position as the number one team in the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Ranking, VNL runners-up United States climbed up to become the new world’s number two team, a spot up from before last week’s Finals and four positions up from before the start of the competition a month and a half ago. Bronze medallists Japan also rose in the chart to occupy the number five spot.
VNL 2023
USA take over number two in World Ranking
Japan up to number five
Published 08:24, 24 Jul 2023
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Poland’s three victories at the Finals in Gdansk brought in a total of 17.98 points (8.01 for the quarterfinal win over Brazil, 3.56 for the semifinal win over Japan and 6.41 for the final win over USA) to improve to a new total of 407.74 points, which is the highest they have had for at least two years back in time. In fact, during that period, Poland broke above the 400-point mark shortly only once, after their 3-2 semifinal win over Brazil at the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in September, when their total reached 400.47 points until the loss to Italy in the next day’s final.
VNL silver medallists USA collected 2.61 points for their quarterfinal victory over France and 10.30 for shutting out Italy in the semis. Even after the 6.41 points lost along with the gold medal match to Poland, the Americans netted 6.51 points towards a new total of 375.29, or 16.27 clear of last week’s number two Italy, whose point losses during the Finals in Gdansk amounted to a net of 10.99 points, pushing the team down to third.
USA started this year’s VNL campaign ranked sixth in the world, climbed to number five after competition week one and to number two after competition week two, but then dropped to number three after the end of the Preliminary Phase, before regaining the second position after the Finals.
Japan’s historic VNL bronze medal came with a climb to number five in the World Ranking, which is the highest the team have placed since the introduction of the new ranking system. Japan picked up 8.79 points for shutting out Slovenia in the quarterfinals and another 7.53 for the tie-breaker win over Italy in the bronze medal match, while dropping only 3.56 with the semifinal loss to Poland. The new total of 327.95 was enough to overtake reigning Olympic champions and last year’s VNL winners France in the ranking. A week ago, the Asians were sixth and, before the start of VNL 2023, they were seventh in the chart.
Unlike France, who went down from fifth to sixth, the other three losers of the VNL quarterfinals kept their positions in the World Ranking from before the Finals: Brazil in fourth, Argentina in seventh and Slovenia in eighth.
