World Volleyball: Russia and Poland favorite for 2 tickets to Rio

The Russian volleyball team at the world championship, September 18, 2015 to Losz

afp.com/Janek Skarzynski
Paris - Russia and Poland will be the logical favorites for the World Cup men's volleyball, until September 23, with a bonus for the first two Rio their ticket to the Olympics.

Russians Sergei Tetyukhin, seeking his sixth Olympics, and Poles of French coach Stéphane Antiga should also be wary of the United States, bronze medalists at the recent World League, and Italians, bronze medalists at the Olympic Games London.

This competition organized as usual in Japan welcomes 12 teams, with host country around the two representatives per continent and the world champions title, then Poland.

The two European representatives were Italy and Russia, the two best teams in the standings of the Old Continent at 1 January 2015. Hence the absence of France, yet the winner of the World League in July.

To qualify for the Olympics in Rio, El Tri will have them go through a European qualifying tournament in January. A World Cup would crown two European teams would be a bonus for the French because it would remove two big teams in their road to Rio.

The principle of this World Cup is simple: each of the twelve teams faces the other eleven or 66 games in total, from Tuesday to a verdict on September 23.

Note that the ranking is based on the number of victories in the first place, the number of points in the second place. A 3-0 or 3-1 victory is worth 3 points, a 3-2 win is worth 2, 2-3 defeat is worth 1 point and a defeat 1-3 or 0-3 is zero