FIVB Women's World Cup: final standings

Although the Italians won the gold medal at the 2007 FIVB Women’s World Cup after defeating Team USA in their both last match on the last day of the tournament, the format for the competition was a bit different: the winner was the team with the best won-lost record at tournament's end. Ties were determined by the Points Ratio (see the table below). So, at the end of play, Italy singularly remained undefeated: they were the overall winners.

There's more to be gleaned from tournament play, but I will start here: Being ignorant of the format, when I first saw "Italy defeated USA to win Cup", I was somewhat dismayed. Though I was not up on the fourth (final) round results, I was aware of what had happened in the previous rounds (though still ignorant of the tournament format.) I was dismayed because, if asked then if I though the US had a chance to stand on the podium in Beijing, my response would have been an unqualified absolutely "positutenally" not: somebody was playing us, trying to swell our heads.

The US has, let us call this, a "Cuba complex": in women's vball, they are constantly kicking our bucks. But so are the Russians and the Chinese and the Brazilians, to name just a few. But "we" can't stand the Cubans. Problem is the Cuban team is hugely Black, and the Team USA invectives must resonate in the inner woman when some USA Team members leave the locker room and look in the mirror in their homes. Thus my focusing the spotlight on Coach Ping: is there a constructive solution? Ranked at this moment in the third position and reflecting the whole lot of work that must now be done, I am more inclined toward a "Yes, there is a chance for a medal." And look at who's looking at who's looking: as host, the People's Republic receives an automatic bid in volleyball, so need not have participated in the world cup tournament. In fact, Russia was defeated by the Italians in the semis at European's with only the finalists going to the world cup, so Russia must qualify at a later event.

Rk	Code	Country	Points	Matches		Points			Sets
				Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Ratio	Won	Lost	Ratio
1	ITA	Italy	22	11		858	604	1.421	33	2	16.500
2	BRA	Brazil	20	9	2	891	671	1.328	29	9	3.222
3	USA	U.S.A.	20	9	2	940	821	1.145	28	13	2.154
4	CUB	Cuba	19	8	3	1'020	951	1.073	28	17	1.647
5	SRB	Serbia	18	7	4	910	866	1.051	26	15	1.733
6	POL	Poland	17	6	5	908	820	1.107	23	18	1.278
7	JPN	Japan	17	6	5	885	866	1.022	21	19	1.105
8	KOR	Korea	15	4	7	825	848	0.973	16	22	0.727
9	DOM	Dominican Republic	14	3	8	797	911	0.875	12	28	0.429
10	THA	Thailand	13	2	9	784	924	0.848	11	29	0.379
11	PER	Peru	12	1	10	681	855	0.796	6	30	0.200
12	KEN	Kenya	11		11	498	860	0.579	2	33	0.061