Italvolley, three straight wins after a minor setback in their season opener
With the first week of the Volleyball Nations League now over, the Italian men’s national team will return home from Canada. The Azzurri will depart Ottawa this afternoon and are scheduled to land in Rome tomorrow morning, June 16, around 9:00 a.m. After a few days of rest, the team will reconvene in Cavalese starting June 18 to prepare for the second week of the competition, scheduled to take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from June 24 to 28.
The team led by Head Coach Ferdinando De Giorgi concludes its Canadian tour on a positive note: three wins (3-1 against Germany, 3-0 against Turkey, and 3-2 against the United States) and a single loss, which came in a tiebreaker during the opening match against France.
These are encouraging results for a squad that arrived in Canada with several new faces. Among them were Mattia Orioli and Tommaso Mati, both making their debuts in the national team jersey just a few days before the departure for the VNL, in the friendly match against Turkey in Cavalese on May 28. Overall, the young players called up have shown promise in the first four matches of Pool 1 in Ottawa.
In the second week of the tournament, Italy will face Bulgaria (June 24), Ukraine (June 25), Brazil (June 26), and Slovenia (June 28), in a group that will serve as an important test to assess the team’s progress.
From June 18 to 21, the following players will gather in Cavalese: Lorenzo Cortesia, Gianluca Galassi, Tommaso Guzzo, Tim Held, Tommaso Ichino, Daniele Lavia, Alessandro Michieletto, Federico Roberti, Yuri Romanò, Roberto Russo, Riccardo Sbertoli, Matteo Staforini, and Nicola Zonta will gather in Cavalese.
Starting June 19, the athletes returning from the first week of the VNL will join the training camp in Val di Fiemme, along with Francesco Comparoni: Mattia Boninfante, Mattia Bottolo, Alessandro Bovolenta, Francesco Comparoni, Giovanni Gargiulo, Gabriele Laurenzano, Leandro Mosca, Mattia Orioli, Domenico Pace, Luca Porro, Paolo Porro, Kamil Rychlicki, Giovanni Sanguinetti, and Francesco Sani.
The final roster of the 14 players who will take part in Week 2 of the Volleyball Nations League in Ljubljana will be announced on Sunday, June 21.
