Simon Dalton presents his prediction for the Volleyball World Championship match.
The Volleyball World Championship playoffs are in full swing. The final match of today’s schedule sees the United States take on Slovenia. The winner will progress to the quarter-final to face the strongest of Bulgaria or Portugal, while the loser will head home.
USA
The American team came through the group stage unbeaten, though without facing any serious opposition: Colombia (3:1), Portugal (3:0) and the Dominican Republic (3:1). Even in those fixtures, however, one major issue became apparent – the absence of a true scorer. At the moment Gabriel Garcia is their top contributor with 36 points, which only puts him 25th overall in the tournament rankings.
Slovenia
Slovenia, by contrast, had a much more demanding group stage. They comfortably beat a strong Germany side (3:1) and went toe-to-toe with Bulgaria (2:3). Unlike the USA, Slovenia have genuine attacking leaders, with two players in the tournament’s top twenty scorers: Tonček Štern is averaging 17.7 points per game, while Nik Mujanović adds 15.
USA vs Slovenia Prediction
The USA are considered the clear favourites, but we disagree. Not long ago these two sides met in the Nations League, and it was Slovenia who came out on top (3-1). Since then they have only improved, which gives them every chance not only to challenge but possibly to win.
