Lausanne, Switzerland, June 20, 2017 - Australia host Japan at Gold Coast for a ticket to the FIVB World League Group 2 final. The Aussies have been there before, winning the Group in 2015, when they hosted the finals in Sydney. It's the third meeting between the two sides in World League history, after splitting victories in two previous encounters this season.
Head-to-Head• Australia and Japan will meet for the third time in the World League, all in 2017.
• On 4 June, in their first ever meeting in the competition, Japan won 3-1. Almost two weeks later on 16 June, Australia triumphed in five sets.
• Paul Carroll scored more than 50 points against Japan in those matches (24 and 27 points).
• Australia can record multiple World League victories against a fellow AVC team for the first time. They only beat Canada and Finland on multiple occasions (both 3).
Australia• Australia did not rely on the automatic qualification for the Group 2 Final Four in Gold Coast, as they finished in third place after the preliminary round.
• Australia won the Group 2 Final Round in 2014, when they were also the hosts, in Sydney.
• Australia have won six of their nine World League matches this campaign. They have only won more in the 2014 World League (7).
• Australia have won at least one set in each of their last 10 matches in the competition, an outright record for them.
• Only Chuan Jiang (164) and Wouter Ter Maat (151) scored more points in Group 2 than Paul Carroll (133).
Japan• Japan could win at least six World League matches in a single season for the second time, after 1993 (10) when they finished in sixth place.
• Japan have played three consecutive five-setters in the World League for the first time (W1-L2).
• Japan have won at least two sets in each of their last eight World League matches, an outright record for them.
• Masahiro Yanagida is the best spiker (58.33%) and server (0.51 average by set) in Group 2. He is the only player in Group 2 to have scored 20 points from aces (next Chuan Jiang with 15).
• Japan also have the best setter of Group 2 as Naonobu Fujii averaged 10.15 per set.