Lausanne, Switzerland, July 5, 2017 - Defending FIVB World League champions take on USA Wednesday in Curitiba in a rematch of the 2008 final which saw the Americans prevail 3-1 at the Maracanazino. USA need to win this one to stay alive in the race for the semifinals, after suffering a tie-break defeat in the hands of France on Tuesday. A win by Serbia means the Americans crash out of the competition and the Balkan side together with France advance to the semifinals. On the other hand, a clear win for three points by USA sees the North Americans secure their ticket to the top four.
Head-to-Head• Serbia will meet United Stated for the 15th time in the World League, having won nine of the previous meetings.
• Earlier this campaign, Serbia beat United States 3-1 on 2 June.
• Serbia won four of their previous five Final Round meetings with United States. Their only defeat came in the 2008 final (3-1).
Serbia• Serbia will finish in the top six for the 14th time and for the third consecutive year. In 2015 they finished runners-up and last year they won the competition for the first time.
• The last team to successfully defend their World League title were Brazil in 2009-2010.
• Serbia won six of their nine World League matches this campaign, but lost their last two. They have not lost three successive matches in the competition since 2014-2015.
• Marko Ivovic was Group 1's best spiker in the preliminary round with a success rate of 53.9%.
United States• United States started their Final Six campaign with a 3-2 defeat against France on Tuesday.
• United States have now lost each of their last four World League matches that were decided in a fifth set.
• Team USA started this World League season with three consecutive losses, but have not suffered back-to-back defeats in the competition since.