USA men face Japan, Argentina, Germany in Olympics volleyball pool play; women’s schedule set

The men’s pools were announced Wednesday for the Paris Olympics and now we know who the USA men will play: 

Japan, Argentina and Germany.

The women’s pools were announced last week when we learned the USA plays France, China and Serbia. The women’s Olympic schedule was announced Wednesday as well.

The men’s announcement coincided with the start of the Volleyball Nations League finals in Lodz, Poland. The USA did not make the eight-team field.

For that matter, the Americans are coming off tough loss to Japan when they were swept in the final match of the third round of VNL this past Sunday in Manila, Philippines. 

Earlier in the tournament, the USA swept Argentina 25-23, 25-21, 26-24 on June 4 in Ottawa, Canada.

This past Friday, the Americans beat Germany 25-23, 21-25, 26-24, 25-23 before getting knocked out of the tournament by Japan 25-20, 25-23, 25-19.

In the men’s Pool A, host France — the defending Tokyo Olympics champion — is seeded first, followed by Slovenia, Canada and Serbia. 

Pool B has Poland, Italy, Brazil and Egypt.

The men’s VNL finals begin Thursday with quarterfinals: Japan vs. Canada, Poland vs. Brazil, Italy vs. France and Slovenia vs. Argentina.

The semifinals are Saturday and the medal matches Sunday.

From the Volleyball World news release:

In pool play, teams will face each of their three opponents once. Those ranked first and second in each pool will advance, as well as the two best third-placed teams. Teams will be seeded in the Final Phase bracket according to the Teams Combined Ranking System and starting at the quarterfinals, the tournament continues in single elimination format.

The Paris 2024 men’s volleyball tournament will feature 26 matches (18 pool play encounters, four quarterfinals, two semifinals and two medal matches) at the South Paris Arena, from July 27 to August 10. The men’s match schedule will be released shortly.

The USA women don’t start until July 29 when the play China. They have a day off and then play Serbia, get another three days off, and then play France, which got one of the 12 spots because it is the host country.

Click here for the complete Paris Olympics women’s volleyball schedule.