Slovenia defeated Chile 3:0 (25:19, 25:20, 25:16) in its opening match of the Men's Volleyball World Championship in the Philippines. Thus, Bulgaria and Slovenia took the lead in Group "E" with 3 points each from their first matches, and the two teams will meet each other on Monday at 12:30, BTA reported.
Earlier in the day, Bulgaria achieved a clean victory over Germany 3:0. Slovenia's leader Tonček Stern led his team with 15 points, Nik Mujanović added 13, and Jan Kozamernik - 11. Diagonal Vicente Paraguire was the most productive for Chile with 12 points.
The surprise of the day was Japan's loss to Turkey with 0:3 (19:25, 23:25, 19:25) in Group "G". Ramazan Mandrači and Adis Lagumdžija scored a total of 32 points for the winners.
The USA team expectedly prevailed over Colombia with 3:0 (25:20, 25:21, 25:14) in Group "D". In the same group, however, the Portuguese team surprisingly defeated Cuba 3:1 (20:25, 25:22, 25:19, 25:19).
Canada defeated Libya 3:1 (22:25, 25:20, 25:12, 29:27) in Group "G", and the Netherlands defeated Qatar 3:1 (25:18, 25:23, 26:28, 25:23) in Group "B".
In the last match of the day, the current world vice-champion Poland defeated Romania 3:0 (34:32, 25:15, 25:19), but after a very dramatic first game. Wilfredo Leon finished with 14 points for the Poles, captain Bartosz Kurek scored 13.