USA beat hosts Japan in opening day

KYOTO, Japan, November 19, 2013 - Japanese fans were pumped to support their home team at Kyoto Prefectural Gymnasium, as they hosted the USA to open the 2013 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Grand Champions Cup.

A strong USA squad ran into a speed bump in the third set, but managed to take the win from the home side, winning 3–1 (25–17, 25–17, 21–25, 25–20).

Leading the victorious USA in scoring was player of the match Matthew Anderson with 21 points. He was supported by middle blocker Maxwell Holt, whose 18 points including a remarkable 8 blocks. The USA outblocked Japan 17 to 7 in the match. For the home team, it was Tatsuya Fukuzawa leading the way with 12 points.

In the other matches, Italy showed a lot of maturity and good play to defeat the reigning Olympic champions Russia in four sets (28-26, 25-20, 19-25, and 27-25). 

Vying for their third straight title in the competition – and the fourth overall – triple world champions Brazil beat Iran 3-1.

The up-and-coming Asian champions caught a very slow start as this was their first match in a couple of months but survived a couple of match balls for their opponents before Brazil eventually wrapped it up in four sets (25-16, 25-17, 25-27, 25-23).