Lausanne, Switzerland, June 2, 2017 - Austria play reunified Germany for the first time in an official FIVB competition Saturday in Frankfurt as both come from opening day wins - Austrian on a walkover against Venezuela and Germany over Kazakhstan.
Head-to-Head• This will be the first encounter at a major competition between Austria and Germany since the German reunification in 1990.
• Austria have met German opposition twice at the World Championships: most recently, they ran into East Germany at the 1962 World Championship. The Germans won in straight sets. They also met at the 1956 World Championship, when the Austrians also lost 3-0 to East Germany.
• Besides those encounters, they also met six times at European Championships, with East or West Germany winning five times and one win for Austria, over West Germany in 1958 (3-1).
Austria• Austria claimed an awarded 3-0 win against Venezuela on Friday in what should have been their debut match in the competition.
• With that administrative win in the bag, the Austrians will make their playing debut in the World League.
• They are one of two debutants in this season’s competition, alongside Estonia, who won their opener 3-2 against Chinese Taipei.
Germany• Germany beat Kazakhstan by a 3-0 scoreline in their opener. They conceded only 55 points.• On the day Austria will play their first World League match, Germany will play their 150th match in the competition.
• Germany have now won four of their last six World League matches.
• For the first time since 2012, when they did it three times, Germany could win back-to-back matches in straight sets within a single campaign.
Simon Hirsch led his team in scoring with 19 points against Kazakhstan (12 spikes, 4 blocks, 3 serves).