Lausanne, Switzerland, June 13, 2017 - Iran and USA meet for the seventh time in World League history Thursday in Katowice to open play on Week 3 of the 2017 FIVB World League, as the race for a ticket to the Final Six in Curitiba heats up. Iran have a slght edge over USA in the standings, but teh Americans lead their head-to-head series 4-2.
Head-to-Head• Iran and United States have met six times in the World League, with two wins for Iran and four for United States.
• Both Iran victories came in the Intercontinental Round in 2015 and both were in straight sets.
• Three weeks before those two victories in June 2015, Iran suffered back-to-back 3-1 defeats against USA.
• The last encounter between these teams was in the 2016 World League with United States winning 3-1.
• In six encounters between these teams in the World League they never played five sets.
Iran• Iran won two out of three matches in the last weekend, after losing two of the three in the first 2017 World League weekend.
• Iran prevailed in five sets against Argentina in the last match. They have won their last six five-setters in the World League. The last team to win a five-setter against Iran in the World League was Poland in 2015.
• Iran's leading scorer Ghara H. Milad Ebadipour scored 86 points. There are two US players with more points in the 2017 World League; Taylor Sander (89) and Patch Benjamin (88).
United States• United States started last weekend with two straight set victories (vs Italy and Russia) before a loss against France (3-1).
• United States have lost four matches in the 2017 World League, already one more than last year (3).
• United States are the only country with two players in the top-10 top scorers in Group 1 this World League: Taylor Sander (5th) and Patch Benjamin (6th).