IF it gives Alas Pilipinas any solace, a handful of world giants have joined them on their way out from the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship.
Along with the Philippines, lower-ranked teams made sure not to miss out being on the winning end of upsets throughout the group stage.
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And some of those surprise results didn’t just go down as one-offs.
It was almost the case for the Nationals but a few underdogs had enough in the tank to oust higher seeds and title favorites from the competition.
Here are the three biggest teams to bow out early from this year’s global conclave.
JAPAN (23rd place; world No. 7)
The highest-ranked Asian team in the tournament at fifth in the world was among the first to be knocked out in the group stage.
Heralded fan favorites in Manila, the huge backing from Filipino fans wasn’t enough to keep Japan in contention after being dealt a pair of surprise sweep losses in their first two matches against Turkiye and Canada.
The absences of star spiker Yuji Nishida and veteran setter Masahiro Sekita were strongly felt in this dismal campaign as ace wingers Ran Takahashi and captain Yuki Ishikawa couldn’t lift Ryujin Nippon from the jaws of defeat.
They were able to bring a win home back to Japan after routing Libya in straight sets during their group stage finale, but that was nothing more than a pat in the back as their 2025 national team season comes to a disappointing end.
Japan bows out from the global conclave in 23rd place and dropped to No. 7 in the world rankings as a result.
FRANCE (18th place; world No. 5)
The quest for France’s maiden World Championship will have to wait for at least two more years.
Gold medalists in the last two Olympics, France was dealt a shock exit as early as the group stage after a top five finish in the 2022 edition.
It took a pair of closely-contested five-set losses at the hands of Finland and Argentina to eliminate the Frenchmen from playoff contention despite a convincing opening-day rout of Korea.
Their two tormentors ended up taking the two playoff spots in Pool C and were sent packing to cap one of the tournament’s biggest shockers yet.
France leaves the competition in 18th place and moved a spot down in the world rankings from fourth to fifth.
BRAZIL (17th place; world No. 3)
There will be at least one new face in this year’s FIVB Worlds podium.
Brazil, the 2022 bronze medalists, have been eliminated from this year’s World Championship despite winning two of three group stage matches.
Serbia, Czechia and Brazil all shared 2-1 (win-loss) records at the end of pool play and all had six match points.
It all came down to Brazil winning the lone game in Pool H that did not end in straight sets against China which yanked its set ratio below Serbia and Czechia.
Simply put, losing one set to China in their tournament-opening win spelled the difference between the Round of 16 and an early exit for Brazil.
The South American powerhouse finished best of the rest among the 16 eliminated teams in the group stage at 17th place while maintaining its No. 3 spot in the world rankings.
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