Tokyo, Japan, May 30, 2016 - Hosts Japan suffered a setback at the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Olympic Qualification Tournament losing to fellow Asian side China. Poland managed to stay undefeated with a thrilling comeback against France, but was the rest day enough for them to recover from the two consecutive five-setters? The home crowd that will fill up the stands in Tokyo will surely be rooting against that...
Head-to-head
• These teams last met at the World Olympic Qualification tournament in 1996 when Poland proved too strong in Patras, Greece (3-1).
• These teams met twice at the Olympic Games. In 1968, Japan won 3-0 en route to their silver medal.
• In 1976, Poland won 3-2 in the semifinal before grabbing the Olympic gold medal.
• Their last world level meeting came at the 2015 World Cup when Poland won 3-1.
Poland
• Unbeaten Poland started their 2016 World Olympic Qualification tournament campaign with five-set wins over Canada and France.
• Poland came from two sets down to beat France 3-2 on Sunday. They survived four match points in the third set (31-29).
• Poland have a perfect record at the World Olympic Qualification tournament in the last 20 years, winning all of their previous 11 matches in the competition (1996, 2004, 2008, 2016).
• Only Canada (207) have scored more points at the 2016 World Olympic Qualification tournament than Poland (206).
• Dawid Konarski scored a team-high 19 points in Poland's 3-2 win over France on day two.
Japan
• Hosts Japan failed to record back-to-back wins when they lost in straight sets against China on day two.
• Japan could lose consecutive matches at the World Olympic Qualification tournament for the first time since a run of five defeats in 2004.
• Japan could lose back-to-back matches by a 3-0 scoreline for the first time in the competition in the past 20 years.
• Kunihiro Shimizu scored a team-high 16 points in Japan's 3-0 defeat against China, including 14 spikes from 29 attempts.
• Shimizu has scored a total of 37 points at the 2016 World Olympic Qualification tournament, fourth-most behind Canada's Gavin Schmitt (44), France's Antonin Rouzier (41) and Iran's Amir Ghafour (38).
• Shimizu has scored a joint-high five aces this edition, alongside Venezuela's Kervin Martin Pierua Urbina and Schmitt.