Olympic runners -up returns. Volleyballers will play two matches per day!

Poland – Italy matches are in the case of male volleyball, a representative classic of recent years. It was these teams that measured in the finals of the World Cup 2022 in the Katowice Spodek (Góra Italians) or the European Championships in Rome (POLES). It can therefore be safely said that the Polish and Italian team … gave themselves after a time. How will it be this time? It will probably be interesting, because probably coaches Nikola Grbić and Ferdinando de Giorgi (EX-Selector of Poles) would really like to save another victory with such an opponent.

League of nations: Poles will play as invincible table leaders

The Polish national team in Chinese XI’an, during their first VNL 2025 tournament, won 3: 1 with the Netherlands, 3: 1 with Japan, 3: 0 with Turkey and 3: 0 with Serbia. Four matches, four wins and a set of points-this gave the position of leaders of the League of Nations for the white and red team of coach Grbic.

In the last dozen or so hours, sad news about Rafał Szymura’s knee injury has appeared. The host who was the captain has already returned to Poland, and Aleksander Śliwka jumped to his place and … a plane. That is one of the Olympic runners -up, which officially begins playing in the 2025 season for the national team.

On the list among those present in the US competition, the coach Grpić added several other names, relative to the tournament in China. A recent winner of the Champions League in the colors of the club from Perugia appeared, for example Kamil Semeniuk.

How did the experienced host described staff realities straight from Chicago?

– I think acclimatization is very good. Everyone has come to this professionally on the plane. There is no very person here who has some problems with functioning or switching on time in Chicago (…) We already have the training rhythm. Of course, we did not come here on vacation, tourism, visit Chicago and its surroundings. We came for a specific purpose to win in every meeting. We know who we face in this round, the top teams themselves, which also came here to the USA in the law of the strongest warehouses. So these will be really hard meetings for us. It will definitely be a nice experience for some players who are somewhere at the beginning of the road with this team. That is why a lot of experience for everyone. We will do everything to present ourselves as well as possible, I think it would be wonderful to end the round of four wins again, as the boys did in China – said Kamil Semeniuk just before the start of competition in the USA host Kamil Semeniuk.

Among the appointed is Marcin Komenda, playmaker Bogdanka Luk Lublin. According to many experts, a man who is to replace … his namesake, Marcin Janusz, as “one” during this representative season.

Interestingly, during the tournament in the United States, Poles will play … two matches in one day. It just happened, looking at Polish watches that on Sunday the team of Grbcia will start with the clash with the hosts (2:30), and then, at the closure of the day – looking at the Polish time zone – Poland will face Brazil (23:00).

It must be admitted, the situation is quite unusual, but certainly not unheard of in the realities of tournament graphic designed by volleyball organizers.

VNL volleyball tournament in Chicago (June 25-30)

25.06 (Wednesday)

• Italy – Poland (19:30)

• Canada – Brazil (23:00)

26.06 (Thursday)

• China – USA (2:30)

• Brazil – China (23:00)

27.06 (Friday)

• Canada – USA (2:30)

• China – Italy (23:00)

28.06 (Saturday)

• Canada – Poland (2:30)

• Brazil – Italy (23:00)

29.06 (Sunday)

• USA – Poland (2:30)

• China – Canada (19:30)

• Brazil – Poland (23:00)

30.06 (Monday)

• USA – Italy (2:30)

All matches of the Polish team will be shown on the open Polsat antenna, Polsat Sport 1 and online via Polsat Box Go.

The last tournament of the intercontinental phase during VNL 2025 will be a performance for Poles in front of their own audience. The team of coach Grbcia will present themselves in the Tri-City Ergo Arena during the tournament on July 16-20.