Mighty Italy just had a little more in a match that will surely become an Olympic volleyball classic.
Advertisement
With the USA out, many thought host Brazil and its star Marta would surely be playing for gold – but Sweden knocked them off on penalty kicks.
The U.S. lost the first two sets but came back to win 23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-13, with an ace in the tie-breaker by top scorer Matt Anderson helping to seal the victory. If it’s Brazil, the Americans will definitely have the fans roaring against them again. Setter Micah Christenson contributed his own blocks and even a kill to end the third set. The U.S. women’s volleyball team also went home with bronze after failing to win an elusive first gold for their country.
He and David Lee stuffed the Italians with stellar blocking.
Copacabana Stadium has been the ultimate good times parade for the last few weeks, hosting packed houses with in-house DJs and plenty of quality sand court performances.
The fourth set resembled the first two, but with neither team taking much of a lead. “Italy served a lot of aces and that’s why they won”.
Italy committed five service faults in the fifth set, handing U.S. five of its first eight points, but the Americans couldn’t take advantage. With the winning ways came new superstitions, too, as Taylor Sander and Kawika Shoji grew out mustaches and John Speraw’s coaching staff burned the blue polos they wore for the first two matches and swapped them out for red US swag.
“I was excited”, he said of the serves that topped 123 kilometers an hour. “I don’t care about how old they are”. I couldn’t ask for anymore.
Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei beat two-time Olympic badminton champion Lin Dan of China 15-21, 21-11, 22-20, avenging his last two losses to Lin in the Olympic finals and further denting once-powerful China’s grip on the sport.
“Our coaching and our philosophy has changed a bit. we’re putting more focus on our athleticism and our technique”.
Geduev, a three-time European champion ranked second in the world, upended Burroughs 3-2 at 74 kilograms to hand the American just his third global loss and knock him out of gold-medal contention. The safe play was the middle of the green and get out of there with a par.
Speraw said he had never experienced anything like what they face in a bronze medal match as a player or coach. I don’t think we will ever regret the way we played here.
Sander said he thought the heartbreak would actually help him and his teammates focus. I’m proud of what we have done, especially considering what we have been through over the previous year.
“My players gave it everything that they could today”.
Advertisement
On Friday, once the Italians made a decision to focus on the present and not look forward at any medal matches, “We flew!”
