It was a dream start for Portugal and Türkiye at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines.
The day delivered several notable results across both venues: Portugal upset Cuba 3–1, Libya secured a set against Canada, Bulgaria recorded the highest set score in World Championship history (40-38), and Türkiye defeated Japan in straight sets, resulting in a loss of nearly 21 World Ranking points for the Japanese team.
FIVB World Ranking leaders and Volleyball Nations League (VNL) champions Poland, USA, Slovenia and the Netherlands all lived up to their favourites tag to comfortably win their respective opening matches.
Portugal shocked Cuba in their opening game. In a Pool D game in Pasay City, the Europeans came back from a set down to overcome their Caribbean opponents in four sets and celebrate their first World Championship win in almost 23 years.
With a match-high 19 points from 22-year-old outside hitter Nuno Marques, the world’s number 29 team put together a 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19) victory over the number 10 team in the FIVB World Ranking.
Turkiye hammered out a shocking shutout of Japan in their opening game in Quezon City.
Ranked number 16 in the world, Turkiye produced a huge 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-19) upset of the number five team in the FIVB World Ranking. It was Turkiye’s first win over Japan since 2016.
Back with the USA men’s national team after sitting out of the Volleyball Nations League, captain Micah Christenson guided the Americans to a solid opening-match victory.
Led by their star setter, the Americans started their campaign in the tournament with a strong 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-14) win over Colombia at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay City.
Playing his first match with the Canadian national team since the Tokyo Olympics, four years ago, opposite Sharone Vernon-Evans made a difference and helped the North Americans avoid what would have been a massive upset and start their campaign on the right foot.
The Canadians faced Libya, who are back at the World Championship after 45 years, in their first match at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, in Pasay City, the Philippines, and recovered from an unexpected first-set loss to triumph 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-12, 29-27) in the Pool G opening match.
Bulgaria started their campaign in the Philippines with a victory. In a Pool E game against Germany they squeezed out the win in the epic first set and swept the match in straight sets.
Bulgaria made far too many unforced errors in the first set, especially from the serving line, and that allowed Germany to recover from a six-point deficit and push the set deep into overtime. After numerous denied set points on both sides of the net, it was Bulgaria, who stepped in front with a 40-38 close. Riding the momentum and greatly reducing the mistakes, the southern Europeans celebrated a 3-0 (40-38, 25-22, 25-20) victory.
The Netherlands took the three points from the Pool B opening match. The Dutch fought off a spirited Qatar to claim the victory in four sets.
Dominating most substantially from the serving line, the Netherlands put together a 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 26-28, 25-23) win over Qatar, who put up a tough battle in each of the four sets of the game.
The sixth-best team in the FIVB World Ranking, Slovenia had a promising start to their campaign, handling Chile in straight sets at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, in their debut on Saturday.
A rising force in international volleyball, the Slovenians had control of the match from start to finish and made use of their greater experience at the top level to sweep the Chileans 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-16) in the last match of the day in the stadium.
FIVB World Ranking leaders Poland were very close to dropping their first set, but bounced back and built from there to sweep Romania in the match that ended Saturday’s schedule in the Philippines.
After an intense and highly competitive first set, the Polish found their rhythm and proceeded to win 3-0 (34-32, 25-15, 25-19) and take the first step to compete for their fourth world title.
