I've got to completely honest — the matchups in this round really didn't interest me much. I've also been battling a fever, so for one of the last times I'll let myself do this (e.g. before the Bloguin move), I give you a deliciously half-arsed post.
Because I did, y'know, watch what I could. I can offer a few thoughts about some of the matches. The first slates of matches weren't webcast, so the first I was able to try to watch was Gibb/Patterson vs. Pedro/Bruno. It was kind of a rough week for the Americans. Gibb and Patterson were the only ones to get this far, men's or women's side. And their performance here ensured that there would be no medal heading back to the USA this week. The first set was tight, one of those classic 'game of inches' beach volleyball sets, with the Brazilians edging their way to 21-18. The second most decidedly was not. It was more one of those classic beach volleyball sets where one team is substantially better than the other, although that's probably not the case. A 21-10 whoopin' in the second set let Jake and Spiker join their countrymen and women in sightseeing over the rest of the weekend.
Next up were Keizer/Van Iersel vs. Talita/Taiana. Two Dutch teams made it this far, and these two were the #1 tournament seeds. But you probably had to favour Talita and Taiana in this one, and they sure did play like favourites. This match in fact had the same score as the last one — (21-18, 21-10) — as Talita's blocking was the major difference, and how. Keizer and Van Iersel did well to keep it as close as they did in set 1, even getting four straight service aces at one point, but they just weren't enough in the end. A lot of Dutch fans gathered for this one, and they left unhappy.
But they didn't have far to go, as over on the outer court Van der Vlist/Wesselink vs. Cicolari/Menegatti was going on. I think the crowd played a role in this one, because oh my word there were a lot of people present. Previously, when watching outer court matches, you could hear the crowd but not see them. And fair play, because the single fixed camera was behind one end rather than being situated perpendicular to the net — I wouldn't want to sit or stand in an area where you could really only see one team, either. But for this match, especially toward the end, there were a great deal of fans visible, and any team Van der Vlist and Wesselink scored, they roared their approval. Cicolari and Menegatti are no spring chickens — they are London Olympic alumnae — and they were also playing their best volleyball of the season this week, but such an atmosphere as this would intimidate almost anyone. The Italian team won set 2 solidly but were a lot less crisp in set 3, as more and more fans came to the court 2 area. It's probably not really that simple, but, hey, correlation. The final was (21-13, 18-21, 15-10).
Next up was Huber/Seidl vs. Smedins/Samoilovs. Despite the fact that both of these teams have FIVB medals this season, you had to view this as a pretty slanted mismatch. The men's knockout draw ended up being kinda weird — the quarterfinals on one side of the bracket were #10 vs. #18 and #11 vs. #22, while on the other side it was #2 vs. #7 and #4 vs. #5. This was 10 vs. 22 right here, and the Corrientes champions were more than equal to the task of the Fuzhou bronze medallists, dispatching them pretty quickly (21-12, 21-14). I do like Huber and Seidl, but they lucked out a bit to make it this far, and I'm not expecting much of them tomorrow in the bronze final. Of course, I said the exact same thing in Fuzhou, so file this one under "that's why we play the games."
The Pedro/Bruno vs. Fijalek/Prudel match decided their opponents for the bronze final. It'll be the Poles, as Pedro and Bruno won won what ended up being a laugher, (21-13, 21-16). I might have expected a little bit more from the Poland team, but Pedro and Bruno were sharp and on-form. The win meant Pedro was able to join his sisters Maria Clara and Carolina to play on the final day for the second tourney in a row, as the Maria Clara/Carolina vs. Holtwick/Semmler match went to the Brazilian tandem. This match was sort of a strange one, the (21-12, 13-21, 15-13) telling the story you think it does. Credit to both sides for making adjustments after two pastings to make the race to 15 a tight one. Tomorrow in the bronze final, the Germans will face the last remaining Dutch team, as the Talita/Taiana vs. Van der Vlist/Wesselink match went to the Brazilians pretty convincingly, (21-14, 21-13). The big difference, again, was Talita's blocking.
So that gives us bronze finals of Van der Vlist/Wesselink vs. Holtwick/Semmler (it's the Dutch team's first time playing for a medal — it's also the first match of the day, so hopefully the home fans will still be there in force to cheer them on) and Fijalek/Prudel vs. Huber/Seidl. The gold finals are Talita/Taiana vs. Maria Clara/Carolina and Pedro/Bruno vs. Smedins/Samoilovs. With only four matches tomorrow, I'll do a better job writing them all up. Should be a great final day in den Haag.
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