Turin, Italy, September 29, 2018 - Serbia and USA go for the bronze medal of the 2018 FIVB World Championship, Sunday in Turin, as they come head-to-head for the second time in this competition after the Americans defeated the European side in five sets on the opening day, three weeks ago in Bari.
Head-to-Head
• Serbia (including Yugoslavia and Serbia & Montenegro) and the United States have met five times at the World Championships. United States lead the head-to-head with three wins to two.
• Their last two World Championship meetings came in the second round in 2014 (3-1 United States) and in the first round this year (3-2 United States).
• Between those matches at the 2014 and 2018 World Championships, these teams met four times at major world level tournaments. Both teams won twice.
• World level major tournaments are World Championships, World League, World Cup, Nations League, Grand Champions Cup and Olympic Games.
• In their match on 12 September, Aaron Russell (20 points) and Matthew Anderson (19) paced United States to a 3-2 win. Uros Kovacevic led Serbia with 18 points.
United States
• United States have won their only other bronze medal match at the World Championships, 3-1 against Cuba in 1994.
• United States have won nine World Championships matches in 2018 and lost two, a 3-0 against Brazil on Friday and 3-2 against Poland on Saturday.
• United States could lose three successive World Championships matches for the first time since the last two matches of the 2002 campaign, followed by the first two of 2006.
• United States could lose three straight matches within a single World Championship for the first time in 20 years (6 straight in 1998).
• United States have won nine matches at a single World Championship for the first time. They have already topped their previous record of eight victories in 1974.
• Aaron Russell is USA's most prolific scorer in the tournament (137 total points).
Serbia
• Serbia failed to reach the final after a 3-0 defeat against Brazil in the semifinals.
• Serbia reached the last four in five of the last six editions of the World Championships, while only reaching the final in 1998 (lost against Italy).
• Serbia will contest the bronze medal match for the fourth time, after 2002 (3-0 loss v France), 2006 (3-1 loss v Bulgaria) and 2010 (3-1 win v Italy).
• Serbia lost their last three matches in the 2014 competition. They aim to avoid the same fate here.
• Serbia (7 wins) could register eight wins at a single World Championship for the first time since 2006 (8).
• Aleksandar Atanasijevic is Serbia's top scorer in this tournament on 138 points.