The Arena da Baixada will host the World League Finals - Group 1
Curitiba, Brazil, July 3, 2017 – The stage is set for the FIVB World League Finals – Group 1. One day before the start of the Final Six, all the finalists trained at the Arena da Baixada stadium. Among them, a shared goal – to reach the top of the podium on Saturday – and the same feeling – that the week is going to be amazing.
The structure of the stadium, which was rebuilt for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, was adapted to host the Finals with the addition of 800 tons of equipment. Five hundred workers were needed to set the stadium up during an entire week.
Hosts Brazil have already played in the stadium, last year, in a friendly match against Portugal to celebrate the gold medal they had won at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games some weeks earlier. Now, the stadium could be the stage for their first World League title since 2010.
“At night, it’s pretty much like any other arena, but during the day it’s a little bit different”, middle-blocker Lucas Saatkamp said. “We had some training sessions here and are getting better adapted to it every day. We expect very tough games as all the six finalists are extremely good teams”.
Canada’s captain John Gordon Perrin was mesmerized by the huge venue after he trained at the Arena da Baixada. The outside hitter could not wait for the start of the Finals.
“I’ve played in some stadiums before, but this is definitely the biggest one”, Perrin remarked. “It’s obviously very exciting to be in a World Cup venue. It’s pretty cool to experience that. It will be awesome, especially to play against Brazil in the first match”.
On the first day of action, Brazil and Canada will open the Final Six at 15:05 (local time) for the Pool J. Later, at 17:40 (local time), France and the United States clash for the Pool K’s opener.
