Ningbo, China, June 9, 2016 - Defending champions USA will open their FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 campaign with a match against European heavyweight Germany.
Head-to-Head
• Germany and United States will meet for the 17th time at the World Grand Prix. Germany won four of the previous meetings, United States 12.
• Their last World Grand Prix meetings came back in 2012 when United States won both matches (3-1, 3-0).
• United States have won their last four World Grand Prix matches against Germany, since the 3-1 victory by Germany in their first meeting in 2010.
Germany
• Germany will participate at the World Grand Prix for the 17th time.
• Germany's best results came in 2002 and 2009 when they claimed the bronze medal.
• In 2015 they finished seventh, their joint-best ranking since the bronze medal in 2009 (also seventh in 2012).
• Germany have alternated wins and losses in their last eight World Grand Prix matches: L-W-L-W-L-W-L-W.
• Germany have lost their last two opening matches at the World Grand Prix (2014 and 2015). Their last win in the opener came against Kazakhstan in 2013 (3-1).
United States
• United States participated at 22 of the previous 23 World Grands Prix.
• United States have won the tournament six times. Only Brazil (10) have won it more often.
• They also claimed two bronze medals, but never took home the silver.
• United States are defending champions. Brazil was the last team to successfully defend the title as they won the tournament in 2013 and 2014.
• This will be United States' 250th match at the World Grand Prix (W154-L95).
• United States have won 15 of their last 16 World Grand Prix matches. They only lost against China in this span.
• Since 2010 United States have lost their opener only once; in 2014 Russia proved too strong (3-1).