Volleyball Finals Recap

Our last Olympic event took place last night at the Capital Indoor stadium northwest of city center. OW and I saw the women's indoor volleyball final game between Brazil and USA. There was an equal number of Brazilian fans and US fans, but the Brazilian fans were by far more vocal and outrageously costumed. The Chinese had no qualms cheering for both teams. However, I did find it amusing that the Chinese would cheer most loudly for Lang Ping, the USA coach, who was one of China's best volleyball players in the 80's.

The first set was clearly dominated by Brazil whose attackers delivered incredible spikes, leaving the US team on the defensive. Brazil also blocked much more intuitively than US, succesfully reading the setter. Brazil took the first set 25-15.

In the second set, USA executed much better and also started putting up blocks of their own. They won easily, 25-18.

Set 3 went to Brazil. I noticed that the US team made many service errors - this is one of their weaknesses and is especially important given rally scoring. Brazil won 25-13.

Set 4 was the closest, with each team taking turns with the lead. However, towards the end, Brazil suddenly won 4 points in a row, winning the match in a matter of minutes (25-21). In my opinion, the US team relied too heavily on one person --Logan Tom. They set her for the last 3 points, and the Brazilians anticipated it each time, putting up a 3 person block, and winning the point off the block. If you look at the stats, the leading scorers in women's volleyball during the Olympics were Logan Tom (USA), Wang Yimei (China), and a Cuban player, you can see that each of these semifinal teams had one superstar attacker. Brazil, on the other hand, is much better at setting all of their players --which also makes them harder to block. I think the US team had it in them to take it to 5, but those last points closed the opportunity.

I found the coaching styles of the two teams to be completely opposite. Lang Ping sits back in her chair, says nothing, and frowns occasionally. The Brazilian coach paces the sidelines, gesturing wildly, and actively coaches his team. He looks like he may have a seizure at any moment. When his team won, he was intensely emotional and worked the crowd to a frenzy during their victory lap.

It was an exciting game and we were able to see the medal ceremony with China, US, and Brazil.

Then, today, we saw the men's indoor volleyball final match --also USA v Brazil. We saw the first game, where Brazil was leading by a large margin. They were putting up ridiculous blocks and looked to be in their element. We left for lunch, and caught the last two points of the match on the bus. Looks like USA came back and won sets 2, 3, and 4, vindicating the women's team.