Outside of an Olympic gold, there’s no greater feat in international volleyball than a World Championship.

The USA men, and 23 other men’s national teams from around the world, gather this week in cities across Italy and Bulgaria to fight for their spot on the 2018 Worlds podium.

Watch the FIVB World Championships LIVE on FloVolleyball

First up for Team USA are five matches in Pool C, where it must finish in the top four to advance to the second round.

Keep reading to find out what to expect from Team USA and its pool play opponents as the 2018 FIVB Men’s World Championships gets underway.

Team USA

The U.S. men have not won a World Championships gold medal since 1986 and have not finished on the podium since 1994. Bronze has been the dominant shade for this team in recent years, as it finished in third place at the 2015 World League, 2016 Rio Olympics, and 2018 Volleyball Nations League. The team also won a gold medal at the 2015 World Cup, which earned it a spot in the 2016 Olympics.

This group of Americans certainly has the talent and experience to go for its first World Championships medal in more than 20 years. Eight members of the 2016 Olympic team made the World Champs roster: versatile pin hitter Matt Anderson, outsides Aaron Russell and Taylor Sander, middles Dave Smith and Max Holt, setters Kawika Shoji and Micah Christenson, and libero Erik Shoji. 

That group of eight represents all members of the Rio Olympics squad that are still playing indoor competitively, with the exception of Thomas Jaeschke, who tore his ACL during Volleyball Nations League.

Two months ago, Sander earned a spot on the Volleyball Nations League Dream Team, despite missing much of the tournament to be in California for the birth of his son, Atli. Anderson, spending time in both the outside and opposite positions during VNL, led the team in kills (136), aces (17), and points (166). He ranked third in kill success rate in the entire tournament, recording a 53.97 percentage. 

Six additional players join the Olympians on the 14-man roster, with Jake Langlois at outside hitter; Taylor Averill, Jeff Jendryk, and Dan McDonnell in the middle; Ben Patch at opposite; and Dustin Watten as the second libero.

All 14 athletes competed in the Nations League, making this USA team one with lots of experience as individuals and many hours spent playing together in practice and compeition.

“We are strong from a leadership and team-dynamic perspective,” USA head coach John Speraw said. “We just need to go out and execute.”  

The Competition - Pool C

Serbia | 9/12 @ 1:30 PM CT

Serbia had a great showing at Volleyball Nations League, emerging from pool play in fourth place with an 11-4 record and advancing to the Final Round, where it lost in straight sets to Brazil and France.

Six-foot-eight opposite Drazen Luburic was Serbia’s top offensive threat, putting away 136 kills and 152 total points throughout the tournament, with 6-6 outside Uros Kovacevic and 6-7 opposite Aleksandar Atanasijevic each contributing 128 total points. All three appear on Serbia’s 22-player preliminary World Champs roster.

In the USA’s VNL pool-play meeting with Serbia, the Americans seemed to have things very much under control, winning 25-22, 25-16, 25-14.

Serbia’s head coach Nikola Grbic remarked after his team’s final match that Serbia was lucky to have gotten as far as it did, sneaking away with wins over Russia and Poland when those teams were missing some of their top players.

"It was a miracle that we qualified [for the Final Six],” he said. “What we did is win against the teams that were better on paper, i.e. Russia and Poland, who were missing players during the round robin. Now, we need to carry out a long analysis of everything that we did during this tournament; what went well, what went wrong. I really hope we can learn our lesson for the World Championship.”

Australia | 9/13 @ 10 AM CT

Team USA’s VNL pool-play match against Australia served as a major turning point for the American squad as it eked out a win in four sets after being swept by Germany the night before.

In that match, the Americans learned just how scrappy and talented this particular group of Australians is. The Aussies ran away with the first set and were leading in the second, forcing Speraw to chew out his team in a timeout and prevent the USA from dropping a match to a team it has never lost to in competition.

The Aussies ended up placing 13th in VNL, winning only five matches, but this is certainly not a team to sleep on. The preliminary World Champs roster features the team’s top VNL scorers Jordan Richards, Paul Carroll, Nehemiah Mote, Thomas Hodges, Lincoln Alexander Williams, and Paul Sanderson.

Russia | 9/15 @ 1:30 PM CT

USA’s toughest pool-play match will be this one against Eastern European powerhouse Russia, which is fresh off its Volleyball Nations League gold medal. Not always at full strength throughout the long VNL tournament, Russia went 11-4 in pool play, losing to Poland, Serbia, Brazil, and France, but ultimately did well enough to advance to the Final Round where it dominated.

The Russians defeated Poland and the U.S. in pool play of the Final Round and then swept Brazil in the semis, preventing the reigning Olympic champ from scoring more than 18 points in a set. In the final, Russia dismantled France 3-0. 

Seven-foot-two middle blocker Dmitriy Muserskiy led the entire tournament with 146 kills at a 65.47 percent success rate, but it was 6-8 opposite Maxim Mikhaylov who impressed the most in the Final Round, leading Russia in kills in all four matches in Lille and being named Most Valuable Player. 

Russia is a favorite to contend for its seventh World Champs gold medal and will be a challenge for Team USA on the 15th. 

Cameroon | 9/16 @ 10 AM CT

Like the Olympics, the FIVB World Championships has a unique qualification system that allows teams from all over the world to qualify, instead of simply taking the top 24 teams according to FIVB World Rankings.

Cameroon, ranked 30th by the FIVB,  earned its spot in the tournament by winning bronze at the 2017 African Nation Championship, beating Algeria in four sets. This is the team’s third consecutive World Champs appearance, with its best finish a 13th place in 2010. In the most recent World Championship in 2014, Cameroon finished 21st.  

Tunisia | 9/18 @ 10 AM CT

Tunisia has regularly been one of the top teams in Africa, and it qualified for World Champs with a gold medal at the 2017 African Nation Championship, sweeping Egypt in the final and ending the Egyptians’ streak of six straight African Nation Championships.

Taking part in 10 previous World Championships, Tunisia has posted a best finish of 15th. The team has also made six Olympics appearances; however, it did not qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2016. 

Last year, Tunisia finished fifth in World League Group 3 with a 4-2 record.