Lausanne, Switzerland, June 2, 2017 - True to tradition, both the Czech Republic and Finland lost their opening matches in the FIVB World League Friday. Both have a knack of bouncing back - though this time something has to give when they meet Saturday in Seoul.
Head-to-Head• This will be the first time Czech Republic and Finland meet in the World League.
• They faced each other four times at major championships, with Czech Republic (including as Czechoslovakia) winning all four matches.
• Their last encounter was at the European Championship in 1997 when the Czechs won 3-2.
• This is the only match in which Finland won a set against Czech Republic as all other matches finished in straight set victories for Czech Republic (all as Czechoslovakia).
Czech Republic• Czech Republic lost their opener by 3-2 against Korea.
• In their last three participations (2014-2015-2016) they lost the first match in the edition each time, but also won the second match.
• Michal Finger scored a team-high 22 points in the first match, more than double the amount of the second prolific scorer of the team, Vladimir Sobotka (10).
• Last season, Finger scored a total of 137 points for the team, to become the Czech top scorer.
Finland• Finland lost the opening match of this year's World League by 3-1 against Slovenia.
• Last season, Finland also lost their opener against Japan, then in straight sets, but followed that loss with three wins.
• They can lose their first two matches in a single edition for the third time in four editions after suffering this in 2014 (first three) and 2015 (first four).
• Antti Ropponen is Finland's top scorer with 18 points. Last year (2016), Ropponen scored only 16 points in the total World League.