This is how the Polish volleyball team is fighting! It was a thriller in Chicago

Coach Nikola Grbić on Wednesday’s hit VNL 2025 focused on the setting: Kamil Semeniuk and Artur Szalpuk at the party, Kewin Sasak at the attack, Marcin Komenda as the quarterback, in the middle of the net Szymon Jakubiszak and Mateusz Poręba and Maksymilian Granieczny as a libero.

On the other side of the net, virtually all the best of the best, looking at the last years performed by the team led by Ferdinando de Giorgi.

League of nations: Poles lost to Italy. Minimal defeat in a tie-break

On the pitch, we had a clash of European champions (Poland) from 2023, versus world champions (Italy) from 2022. What’s more, the Italians in solidarity won the final in Katowice Spodek, and the Poles responded successfully during the final playing in Rome.

The bill, therefore, came to zero, but there is no question that the former Poles selector – he certainly wanted to win the match against the team led by the selector Grbcia. There were no jokes in terms of staff on the Italian side. Virtually all the biggest stars are available, including Simone Giannellim, Alessandro Michieletto and Fabio Balasso. However, so that it would not sound badly in relation to the people indicated by the Polish trainer, Poles perhaps without such characters as: Wilfredo Leon, Tomasz Fornal or Bartosz Kurek – but they turned out to be an equal opponent for the Pleiades of Italian stars.

However, it started … very bad for Poland. The Italians broke their rivals 25:17, having even ten points advantage. Only at the end of the party one could get the impression that Poles were entering the appropriate turnover. The team captain during the Chicago tournament, Aleksander Śliwka, gave a nice change. A few good touches made the humor on the Polish side slightly improved.

The continuation of better playing Poles could be noted from the second installment. It was true that it started from 1: 5 or 2: 6, but the European champions managed to wake up. This is enormous of the duo of the hosts, Semeniuk and Szalpuk. It was their actions that caused Poles to connect to this meeting again. Sasak had his problems on the right wing, much less effective than it was during the first VNL 2025 tournament in China. Jakub Nowak gave a valuable change in the middle of the net, changing Poręba. The end of the party belonged to Poland, from 20:20 to 25:23 – the last two actions are two effective semeniuk attacks.

In the third set, Poles had to chase again, but again it was a successful pursuit. It was 11:14 or 15:17, but after two mistakes, which was made by Yurii Romano plus Nowak’s attack from the inside and it got 21:19. De Giorgi began to look for changes, on the pitch appeared, among others Already permanently attacker Kamil Rychlicki. A volleyball player who will appear in the colors of ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle from the new season. And you have to admit that it was a good change. The Poles did not let themselves be won, closing the set with a result of 25:21.

Fourth edition? Again, a relatively safe advantage of Italy, ended at 20:25 from a Polish perspective. The world champions pressed more and more, and Poles had problems with a slightly worse reception (Libero Mateusz Czunkiewicz appeared on the pitch – Maksymilian Granieczny, but very solid in defense), and there was no such offensive force anymore. The scenario closing the start of Tie-Break turned out to be a fair decision.

Italians entered the fifth set again. Poles lost 5: 8, but they did not give up, including adding points with the block of Jakubiszak or Nowak. Poland took the lead 11:10, after which, after the brilliant action, the Italians quickly made up for the losses (11:11) blocking Sasaka (brilliant defense of Czunkiewicz). There was also a series of long video verifications, two unfavorable for Poland. First, the headquarters block (11:12) was demonstrated, and then touching the mesh after effective, it seemed to attack Szalpuk (11:13).

Eventually it ended at 11:15 and the first defeat of volleyball players in the current VNL 2025 campaign.

It is also necessary to praise Polish supporters who, as they have already accustomed – did not disappoint. In Chicago you could hear really loud, white and red doping, for the team of coach Grbic. It seems that the organizers of VNL with the location and presence of the Polish team hit the jackpot.

VNL 2025: When and with whom the next match of the Polish national team?

The next match during the Chicago tournament Poles will play with the Canadians. Poland – Canada meeting on Friday (i.e. June 28) at 2:30 Polish time.

All Polish team matches are 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.