There are matches that remain in memory for the result and others that do so for an extraordinary circumstance. The duel between Italy and Germany was one of the latter. In a friendly match held in Reggio Calabria, both teams featured the longest set recorded between national teams: the first set ended 66-64 after 1 hour and 29 minutes of play.
The match was part of the FIPAV Cup Men Elite and saw Germany as the winner of that endless beginning. The German team was 12-7 down, but managed to react and brought the score to 18-18. Later, they had their first opportunities to close the set when they went up 24-22, although Italy managed to hold on and from there began a succession of ties that seemed endless.
The explanation lay in one of the basic rules of volleyball: a set is won by reaching 25 points, but always with a minimum lead of two. As neither team could gain that advantage, the score kept growing to far exceed all usual records.
Between Germany and Italy they saved 43 set points. The Italians had 28 opportunities before their rivals managed to close the set, while Germany needed 15 chances to finally find the two consecutive points that allowed them to celebrate. Finally, Tobias Brand was the one who scored the decisive point to set the score at 66-64.
The first set alone lasted 89 minutes and totaled 130 points, a combination that greatly surpassed the previous mark between national teams. The record belonged to Argentina and was only two months old: on June 28, the national team had defeated Poland 50-48 during the Volleyball Nations League, in a set that lasted 62 minutes.
The new record also displaced a mark that had been a reference in club volleyball for over a decade. In 2013, Korean Air Jumbos had defeated 56-54 against Rush & Cash in the men's championship of South Korea. In Italy, meanwhile, the local record was 54-52 between Cuneo and Treviso in 2002.
Interestingly, after such a start, there was still practically the entire match ahead. Italy responded in the second set with a 25-22, Germany again prevailed in the third by 25-23 and the Italians equalized again with another 25-22. In the tie-break, Italy turned the story around with a 15-12 and took the match by 3-2, after almost four hours of play.
