VNL 2026

VNL semis to feature remakes of recent five-set battles

Slovenia to challenge Poland, Japan to take on USA on Saturday

Published 06:05, 31 Jul 2026

USA (USA) vs. Japan (JPN) - Pool 4 - Preliminary Phase #109589083

Saturday, August 1, is semifinals day at the men’s Volleyball Nations League Finals in Ningbo Beilun, China. The first duel for a spot in Sunday’s gold medal showdown features an all-European clash between the teams of Slovenia and Poland. Then, Japan and the United States will lock horns in the second. Both of these match-ups already occurred during the Preliminary Phase and produced exciting five-set battles.

Watch the Volleyball Nations League 2026 on VBTV

View this post on Instagram

Semifinal action serves off at 15:00 local time (07:00 UTC) with the game between Slovenia and Poland.

It will be the fourth (third consecutive) time Slovenia play in the VNL semifinals. In all three previous cases, they finished the season in fourth place, so they are yet to claim their first VNL medal. This season, Slovenia took third place in the final Preliminary Phase standings on a 10-2 win-loss record and 26 points. In the opening quarterfinal in Ningbo on Wednesday, they persevered through an epic battle against Turkiye and celebrated a 3-0 (25-21, 35-33, 39-37) victory. Slovenia are currently the number five team in the FIVB World Ranking.

Poland are the defending VNL champions and the world’s number one team. They have won the VNL twice – in 2023 and in 2025. In 2021, they took silver. They also have three bronze medals in their collection – from 2019, 2022 and 2024. So, they have made the podiums at all of the six most recent (out of a total of seven) VNL editions. Poland are also silver medalists of the last Olympic Games and bronze medalists of the last World Championship. They took second place in this year’s Preliminary Phase, on 10-2 and 29, and then, they managed to get past Ukraine in their quarterfinal on Thursday in China, taking a 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 25-17) win to move on to the semis.

In the past 12 years, Slovenia and Poland have met 18 times in official international competitions and the head-to-head record is balanced at nine wins each. In the VNL alone, Poland lead by 4-3 in wins. When they last met in Linyi, China during the first week of this year’s VNL, the two sides put together a nail-biting five-set thriller, which went 3-2 (27-25, 23-25, 26-24, 21-25, 19-17) the way of Slovenia.

View this post on Instagram

Saturday’s second semifinal, featuring Japan and USA, starts at 19:30 local time (11:30 UTC).

Japan are the only undefeated team in this year’s VNL. They topped the Preliminary Phase on 12-0 and 30, and then, knocked out Finals hosts China in a 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-23) comeback in one of Wednesday’s quarterfinals in Ningbo. In the course of the competition, Japan climbed three positions up the World Ranking to number four. Japan have collected two medals in the VNL so far – a 2023 bronze and a 2024 silver. Last year, they failed to get past the quarterfinals, where they were stopped by champions-to-be Poland.

USA finished the Preliminary Phase in fifth place on 8-4 and 25. On Thursday, they produced a spectacular 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21) quarterfinal shutout of last year’s silver medalists and reigning world champions Italy to move on to the semifinals for the fifth time. The Americans have never won the VNL, but they have picked up three silvers (2019, 2022, 2023) and a bronze (2018). Last year they did not make it to the Finals and finished in 12^th place. Their last podium at a world-level event was achieved at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where they earned bronze. Currently, the United States hold the number six spot in the World Ranking.

Japan and USA have met 50 times at major world-level tournaments. The Americans have won 38 of these encounters, the Asians – the other 12, including the two most recent ones, in VNL 2025 and in VNL 2026. The overall head-to-head record in the VNL alone stands at 4-3 in favor of the United States, with Japan winning the last three meetings in the competition. The two teams last met on June 27 in Orleans, France. In a hot five-set duel, Japan came back from a set down twice to squeeze out a 3-2 (18-25, 25-21, 20-25, 25-22, 15-13) victory.