By Megan Kaplon

If you follow the members of the U.S. Men’s National Volleyball team on social media, you might have noticed a trend over the past couple of weeks. The national teamers are heading home, leaving their professional teams overseas and coming back to the States where they trained for a few days before shipping out to China for the first week of Volleyball Nations League. 

The FIVB Volleyball Nations League is a new tournament, rebranding and bringing together the Women’s Grand Prix and Men’s World League under one name. In the first of five weeks of preliminary play, the U.S. men will face off against China, Bulgaria and Argentina. 

Here’s what to expect from this iteration of Team USA, and their first round of VNL opponents. 

Team USA

This week’s 14-player roster for the second-ranked U.S. men features six returners from the 2016 bronze-medal winning Olympic team: Taylor Sander (OH), Thomas Jaeschke (OH), Kawika Shoji (S), Max Holt (MB), David Smith (MB), and Erik Shoji (L). Olympians Matt Anderson (OPP), Aaron Russell (OH) and Micah Christenson (S) are on the 21-player roster for the entire VNL season but will not travel with the team this week.

Kyle Ensing (OPP) and T.J. DeFalco also appear on this week’s roster. The pair of rising college seniors recently won the 2018 NCAA men’s volleyball championship with their Long Beach State team.

Jeff Jendryk (MB), Ben Patch (OPP), Jake Langlois (OH), Taylor Averill (MB), Dustin Watten (L), and Jonah Seif (S) round out the roster for the matches in Ningbo. 

Last season, the U.S. men finished fourth in World League, losing to Canada in the bronze-medal match. Throughout that tournament, Patch and Sander were the offensive leaders for the team.

A group of young players, including Langlois and Ensing, represented the USA in the 2017 Pan Am Cup and finished fifth. Team USA then took another fourth at the FIVB Men’s Grand Champions Cup, but the Americans ending the season winning the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship. 

The Competition

Argentina | Friday, May 25, 3 AM CT

The most dangerous of Team USA’s week-one opponents, Argentina is a team on the rise. After finishing fifth at the Rio Olympics in 2016, 11th at the 2017 World League competition, and winning the 2017 Pan American Cup, Argentina ranks seventh in the world. 

The U.S. men last faced Argentina in the opening match of the 2016 World League, with the Americans claiming a four-set victory.

Argentina’s head coach Julio Velasco has had a decorated career with men’s and women’s national teams around the world. While the head coach for the Italian men from 1989 to 1996, Velasco led the team to an Olympic silver medal, two World Championship victories, and three European Championship titles, as well as a World Cup gold and five World League titles. He has also spent time at the helm of the Italian women’s program and the men’s teams of the Czech Republic, Spain, and Iran. 

Olympic veterans Martin Ramos, Cristian Poglajen, Facundo Conte, Sebastian Sole, Bruno Lima, Ezequiel Palacios, Pablo Crer, and captain Luciano De Cecco return for Argentina, joining with a number of young players, including 20-year-old outside hitter Jan Martinez Franchi, to make up the VNL roster. 

Bulgaria | Saturday, May 26, 3 AM CT

No. 14-ranked Bulgaria, one of the four “challenger” teams competing in this year’s men’s Volleyball Nations League tournament, is looking to reestablish itself as one of the prominent men’s volleyball teams in the world. 

The Bulgarians finished fourth at the London Olympics in 2012, and in last year’s World League competition, they ended up ninth in Group 1. 

Six-five setter Dobromir Dimitrov will be a key player for the Bulgarians as they kick off their 2018 VNL appearance, as well as 6-8 twin brothers Valentin and Georgi Bratoev and 6-9 Nikolay Nikolov, who was named the Best Middle Blocker of the 2015 FIVB Club World Championship.

In preparation for VNL, Bulgaria played a friendly with No. 4-ranked Russia, which the Bulgarians lost 25-14, 17-15, 25-20, before winning the extra fourth set 25-22. 

China | Sunday, May 27, 6:30 AM CT

This week, China will be the host team. Although the Chinese women are three-time Olympic gold medalists and currently the top-ranked team in the world, China’s men’s team has not historically been as successful. The Chinese men have only competed in two Olympic games, and their highest FIVB World Championships finish was seventh in 1978 and 1982.

But China could be on the rise. In April of last year, the Chinese federation hired Raul Lozano, an Argentina native who had previously been the head coach of Iran’s men’s volleyball team. Under Lozano’s leadership, Iran qualified for the Rio Olympics, finishing fifth. He is the first-ever foreign head coach of the China men’s volleyball team.

Lozano has been very open about his ambitions of earning a spot for the China men’s national team in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. 

“China's team is good at attacking, but like other Asian teams, it is weak on defense,” Lozano said to China Daily last year shortly after accepting the China men’s national team job. “I don't think it is because of players' height ... They can do much better and we'll have some targeted training to improve that.”

Non-USA Matches in Ningbo, China

China vs. Bulgaria | Friday, May 25, 6:30 AM CT

China vs. Argentina | Saturday, May 26, 6:30 AM CT

Bulgaria vs. Argentina | Sunday, May 27, 3 AM CT

Looking Ahead

Following this week’s competition, Team USA will travel to Brazil and Canada, before returning home June 15-17 to host Serbia, Poland, and Iran in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. The U.S. men will then play their final week of preliminary competition in Italy.