Plenty of solid Olympic ticket candidates coming to Tokyo

The 2023 national team season in men’s volleyball is about to culminate as the three tournaments of the FIVB Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifiers take place from Saturday, September 30, through Sunday, October 8, in Brazil, Japan and China, with the world’s best 24 teams, split into three round-robin pools of eight vying for six coveted tickets (two per pool) to next year’s Olympic Games.

Let’s take a look at Pool B, to be played in Tokyo, where Egypt, Finland, Japan, Serbia, Slovenia, Tunisia, Türkiye and United States will fight to be among the top two in the final pool standings.

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As many as four of the top 10 teams in the FIVB World Ranking will compete in this pool and the world’s number two USA are just one of the favourites to claim the spots at Paris 2024. With a “long bench” and consistent performance, Micah Christenson and his teammates have had an excellent season so far. First, the Americans topped the Preliminary Phase standings in the Volleyball Nations League and went on to reach the final before settling for silver. Then, they made a victorious run through the 2023 NORCECA Senior Men’s Volleyball Continental Championship and topped the podium unbeaten, returning to the throne for the first time since 2017. Hoping to continue their positive streak into the upcoming tournament in Tokyo, United States are aiming at their 13^th overall and 11^th consecutive appearance at the Olympic Games. So far in Olympic history, the Americans have claimed three gold and two bronze medals.

Apart from having an excellent team with some of volleyball’s most popular stars like Yuki Ishikawa, Ran Takahashi and Yuji Nishida on the squad, Japan can also rely on great inspiration from the home crowd on the stands in Tokyo. The world’s fifth-ranked team are targeting their 10^th Olympic appearance, reminiscent of the good old times, when they medalled at each of the first three Olympic volleyball tournaments and even grabbed the title at Munich 1972. Earlier this season, Japan finished second in the VNL Preliminary Phase and went on to claim a historic bronze in the competition. Last month, they triumphed as Asian champions, after dropping only a set on the way to the title at the continental championship.

Slovenia is enjoying a great generation of players, who have achieved a number of historic successes at major continental and world-level competitions over the past decade, rising to number eight in the world. Now the team around captain Tine Urnaut and rising star Rok Mozic is ready to write more history by qualifying to the Olympics for the first time. Earlier this month, just a couple of weeks before the start of the Olympic qualifications, the Slovenians achieved a prestigious bronze at EuroVolley 2023, after beating reigning Olympic champions France in the third-place match.

It has been a while since Serbia’s last major success, the 2019 European Championship gold, but the southern European side has continued to show stable results and is currently occupying ninth place in the World Ranking. With tonnes of talent around top-notch stars like Marko Podrascanin, Aleksandar Atanasijevic and Uros Kovacevic, the Serbians are always capable of powering through to the top. After skipping the previous two Olympics, they are eager to make it to Paris 2024 for their seventh appearance at the Games. When they competed as Serbia and Montenegro, they earned two Olympic medals, including the Sydney 2000 gold.

It would not be a huge surprise if number 14 in the world Türkiye meddled in the big teams’ affairs at the tournament in Tokyo. Eager to follow in the steps of their female compatriots, Turkish men have recently shown tremendous growth and ambition to join the world’s top teams. This season, they won the CEV European Golden League and the Volleyball Challenger Cup, securing the right to compete in next year’s VNL for the first time, and making it to the Olympics for the first time would certainly fit well in their vision for the 2024 season.

The remaining three teams in Tokyo are also certain to give their best even if the odds for success are much lower. Africa’s Tunisia, number 18 in the world, and 2023 continental champions Egypt, number 19, will try to earn the right to represent their continent at the Games again. Tunisia has already done it seven times, including Tokyo 2020, while Egypt are after their fifth Olympic appearance. At the recent EuroVolley, Finland, currently 28^th in the World Ranking, showed that they have a really good team capable of fighting as equals with the big opponents. Making it to the Olympics for the first time and quite possibly a great number of Finnish fans on the stands would be the extra teasers in their effort in Tokyo.

The tournament in the Japanese capital serves off at 10:00 local time (01:00 UTC) on Saturday with a game between Slovenia and Tunisia. The first competition day also offers Türkiye’s encounter with Serbia at 13:00 (04:00), a match between USA and Egypt at 16:00 (07:00), and hosts Japan’s opening game against Finland at 19:25 (10:25).

Every competition day between September 30 and October 8 features all eight participating teams engaging in four games on the day’s schedule, with the big clash between Japan and United States left for dessert as the last match on the last day’s programme. October 2 and 5 are rest days.

FIVB Road to Paris Volleyball Qualifiers: full schedule

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