SIX teams are now through to the Round of 16 of the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship.
Canada’s 25-20, 25-23, 25-22 beating of world No. 5 Japan set the tone for a day of qualifications and eliminations in the global conclave on Monday.
That result sealed the top two spots in Pool G as Canada brought Turkey along to the next round upon carrying identical 2-0 records in the group stage.
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Over in Pool B, a pair of European giants in world No. 1 Poland and Netherlands booked their seats in the next round of the tournament.
The reigning silver medalists pounced on also-ran Qatar, 25-21, 25-14, 25-19, shortly after the Dutchmen denied Romania’s upset bid in a closely-contested 25-23, 26-24, 26-24 sweep.
All four losers of the aforementioned matches can no longer advance to the knockout stage as they all carry 0-2 cards with one game left in the preliminaries.
Despite the possibility of landing in a three-way tie at 2-1 in their respective groups, USA and Bulgaria’s set ratios are statistically superior enough to avoid dropping out of the top two places in Pools D and E respectively.
USA routed Portugal, 25-19, 25-22, 25-17, shortly after the first five-set contest at the Mall of Asia Arena which saw Bulgaria halting world No. 7 Slovenia’s reverse-sweep bid, 25-19, 25-14, 18-25, 23-25, 15-13.
As Dutch ace Michiel Ahyi pointed out, it will all boil down to which team wants it more from here on out as the 32-team field starts to narrow down.
“It’s the fighting spirit that makes us be able to take a win,” he said.
“Where maybe other teams would have maybe started doubting themselves and split apart, we really stuck together.”
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