Consider this as your cheat sheet for the games to watch on #VNL2023.
The Philippines will once again serve as host to a portion of the men’s tournament of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), where the world’s top volleyball nations are competing.
Pasay City is one of the six cities that will host the preliminary leg of the prestigious international tourney, which has already seen action in Canada and Japan for the first week of competition earlier this month. Netherlands and France will host the second week, before the 16 teams come to either Pasay or Anaheim, United States for the Week 3 games.
The final round of the competition will be held at Gdansk, Poland.
The Filipinos are set to host a few title contenders for the fifth edition of the men’s VNL. Top of the list is Italy, the reigning World and European champions. Brazil, world no. 2 and 2021 VNL winners, are also coming to Metro Manila. Volley players of Poland, which is currently the top-ranked men’s squad, are also looking to leave their marks.
Also coming to Manila are seventh-ranked Japan, ninth-ranked Slovenia, world no. 12 Netherlands, world no. 17 Canada, and 25th-ranked China.
The schedule of the games, which will be held in the Mall of Asia Arena, are as follows:
July 4, 2023 (Tuesday)
3 p.m. - Brazil vs Italy
7 p.m. - Japan vs China
July 5, 2023 (Wednesday)
3 p.m. - Canada vs Netherlands
7 p.m. - Poland vs Slovenia
July 6, 2023 (Thursday)
11 a.m. - Brazil vs Netherlands
3 p.m. - Canada vs Italy
7 p.m. - China vs Slovenia
July 7, 2023 (Friday)
11 a.m. - Poland vs Brazil
3 p.m. - Slovenia vs Italy
7 p.m. - Japan vs Netherlands
July 8, 2023 (Saturday)
11 a.m. - Brazil vs China
3 p.m. - Poland vs Canada
7 p.m. - Japan vs Italy
July 9, 2023 (Sunday)
11 a.m. - China vs Canada
3 p.m. - Slovenia vs Netherlands
7 p.m. - Japan vs Poland
Filipinos will certainly have their fix of volleyball action in the next few weeks as the PVL Invitational Conference, which is welcoming new local teams aside from the foreign squads, is also set to start on June 27. Don’t miss any of it.
(Disclaimer: Schedules are accurate as of writing and may be subject to change.)