2016 Olympics Rankings: #5 Italy (Men)

The Italy men's volleyball team clocks in at No. 5 in our 2016 Olympics Rankings.

Aug 1, 2016 by FloVolleyball Staff

By Bev Oden

The FloVolleyball Olympics Rankings will count down to the start of the indoor volleyball competition in Rio by highlighting one team per gender each day. Today, five days before the first serve, we profile the No. 5-ranked Italy men and Japan women.

COUNTRY: Italy

TOP PLAYERS

Ivan Zaytsev, Opposite
Third-best scorer at World League and World Cup; best spiker and second-best server at World Cup; Italy's best scorer, second-best server, second-best digger and best receiver at World League

Filippo Lanza, Outside Hitter
Tenth-best spiker at World Cup; Italy's third-best scorer, second-best spiker and third-best receiver at World League

Osmany Juantorena, Outside Hitter
Second-best spiker, eighth-best digger and 10th-best scorer at World Cup

RISING STAR TO WATCH

Simone Giannelli | 19 | Setter
Fifth-best server in World League final round; Italy's second-best blocker, best server and third-best digger at World League

SYNOPSIS

Italy has a long and illustrious history in men's volleyball. The Rio Olympics marks the program's 11th Olympic Games, and the Italians hope to add a sixth medal to their collection. The team took silver in 1996 and 2004 and bronze in 1984, 2000 and 2012. They fell to Russia in the bronze-medal match in 2008 to take fourth. Italy has yet to win Olympic gold, but has amassed an incredible amount of hardware from other major international competitions.

Over a 16-year period from 1989 to 2005, Italy won three world championships, one world cup and six European championships. Its eight World League titles is second only to Brazil's nine. Italy's last World League title was back in 2000, and its best finish of late was a bronze in 2014. The Italians finished fifth in 2015 and fourth this year--they beat the U.S. in the final round, but lost in five to eventual champion Serbia in the semifinals and in three sets to France in the bronze-medal match.

Italy qualified for the Olympics early this quad with a silver-medal finish behind USA at the 2015 World Cup. Behind the play of tremendous 6-8 opposite Ivan Zaytsev, Italy has shown it can finish on the podium consistently, although rarely on the top step.

PREDICTION

Italy will beat Mexico and Canada with ease, but its other three matches will be more of a challenge. If it loses to Brazil and the U.S., it will need to beat France to advance from the pool in third place for a more favorable draw. If the Italians lose to France, their tournament may end in the quarterfinals. But with a high-level performance in this tournament, they should find themselves in the bronze-medal match.