I had the good fortune to watch just about all of the men’s final at the Olympic tournament. Only got bits and pieces of the women’s final, despite the fact that USA was in it. You’d think NBC would have wanted to show more of that one.
But anyway, the men’s final made for some very good watching.
Brazil and Russia went to the knockout stage as the #2 and #3 seeds, respectively from Group B. They, along with the Americans, all finished at 4-1 in group play, but tiebreakers made the USA the 1-seed, Brazil the 2 and Russia the 3. Russia’s lone group-stage loss was to Brazil, in their first match, a somewhat competitive but still straight-sets loss (21-25, 23-25, 21-25). Brazil’s lone loss was to the Americans in four sets (25-23, 25-27, 19-25, 17-25). And if you’re paying attention, yes, this means Russia beat the Americans in a five-set affair where USA had early control but lost steam as the match went on (Russia won 27-29, 19-25, 26-24, 25-16, 15-8).
Keep that in mind.
With the Americans surprisingly losing in straight sets to Group A #4 seed Italy (26-28, 20-25, 20-25) and finishing out of the medals in their defense of Beijing gold, the stage was pretty well set for a Russia/Brazil final. Brazil dominantly dispatched Italy in the semifinals, while Russia needed four sets to get past Bulgaria.
The final started well for Brazil. They won the first two sets 25-19 and 25-20 and didn’t look particularly challenged in either. The biggest advantage, is it tends to be, was in serve and serve reception. There were just too many points where Russia didn’t have much of a chance to set their offense.
It was starting to look that way in the third set, too. Brazil led most of the way. Russia made a run to tie it up at 23-23, but Brazil got the next point to go up 24-23 and have gold medal point.
And that’s when Brazil’s coach Bernardo Rezende opted to bring in Giba to serve.
If you don’t know, Giba is a big, big name in men’s volleyball. In terms of fame, if not dominance, he’s basically the Pele of volleyball. He was the team captain, out of undeniable respect.
But he’s also 35 years old, and still not entirely recovered from leg surgery late last year. This was always going to be his last tournament with the national team. He’d had only occasional playing time in the matches leading up to the gold medal final, and none in the knockout stage.
NBC speculated that it was a “glory sub.” To give Giba the honor of serving the gold medal winning point. And sure, that’s an honor that would be well-deserved, if you knew it was going to happen. The Giba of London wasn’t the Giba of Beijing (where Brazil fell short against America in the gold medal final) or the Giba of Athens (where Brazil won it all). And while it was gold medal point, it was the only one. It was 24-23. It wasn’t 24-16 or something.
This might have been the very turning point of the match. As you could have easily predicted, Russia took the next point to draw even at 24. Brazil scored on serve reception on the next point to go up 25-24 and have their second gold medal point, but that was the high point of the evening for them.
Russia staved off gold medal point and took one on serve to go up 26-25. After four consecutive sideouts, the Russians then finished off the set 29-27.
Brazil would come no closer.
Russia seized control in the fourth set. Brazil looked tired, and surprised to still be on the court. And Giba looked the most tired, despite having only just come in. Their passing just wasn’t as crisp, their hitting just wasn’t as powerful, their defense just wasn’t as strong. They still retained the advantage on service and serve receive — Russia committed a few cringe-inducing service errors in an otherwise sterling set (including one on set point), and solid run on serve from one of Brazil’s heaviest hitters Lucão made the score look like the set was more competitive than it was (25-22). But on the whole, Russia hitter Dimitriy Muserskiy just tore through the Brazilian defense.
That left it to the race to 15 for the gold medal in set five. You could feel how the energy had shifted in the arena. The Brazilian fans were rocking the house early on, especially when their boys had gold medal point twice in the third set. But as the match wore on, Russia took undeniable control and the red, white, and blue flags (common flag colors, huh?) outnumbered the green and gold globes.
Russia jumped out to an early lead in the fifth set, and as is almost always the case, that was enough. They were ahead 14-8 and with six straight gold medal points to work with, it was basically over. It looked like 15-8 was the final, but the team had to clear the court and play one last point because what looked like a blocking error was instead called as an illegal back row attack on Russia. No matter — Russia put it away on the next point to win the final set 15-9. Though the FIVB considers Russia the successor of the storied USSR volleyball program, this was their first Olympic gold as Russia and only their second international title after the ’05 European League (Russia hasn’t played the tournament since). Bearing that in mind, it was their first Olympic title since their home Olympics in ’80, and first since the ’68 Mexico City Olympics for a fully-attended Games.
It must leave a bad taste in the Brazilians’ mouths, just like their loss in men’s soccer. Soccer is king in Brazil (just like everywhere other than America, and Canada), but volleyball is an easy, and close, second. They came within a single point, twice, of entering their home Olympics in four years time as defending champions on both the men’s and women’s sides. And I’m not too sure where they go from here. The Olympics were the final major championship of the year, and none of the teams in London (with the exception of the host nation, who may not continue to field volleyball teams at all) should be seriously challenged in world championship qualification for some time.
I do wonder whether Bernardo Rezende will be retained as coach. You really have to look critically on his decision to insert Giba on serve, on gold medal point in the third set. It really served no tactical purpose, and when you’re at 24-23, you’ve got to be making tactical decisions from the bench. He claims it was to spell his more tired players, but when you’re one point from the gold medal, does that really matter? How are they so tired at the tailed of the third set anyway?
In the end, it’s congratulations to Russia for an exhilarating finale and a richly deserved gold medal. They’ve sure put out notice to other teams — if you want to finish them off, you had better do it in 3 sets. Their only loss in London was in 3 sets, and by staving off elimination against the United States and then with everyone watching in the gold medal final, their endurance and tenacity carried them to glory.
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