Brazil doing its damndest to mess up the USA in volleyball - Articles

Damn, Brazil. Or is that damn Brazil? Either way, just consider what the host country for the Olympics has done to USA volleyball the past couple of weeks. In the FIVB Grand Prix championship match July 10 in Bangkok, Thailand, the U.S. women lost to Brazil. In the FIVB World League in Krakow, Poland, the U.S. men lost to Brazil in pool play on Friday and were eliminated from the tournament. In the most recent international FIVB beach tournament, in Gstaad, Switzerland, the U.S. pair of Nick Lucena and Phil Dalhausser lost to Brazilians Pedro Solberg and Evandro (you know how those Brazilians go by one name) in two sets. And on the women’s side of that tournament, the USA’s April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings lost to Brazilians Talita Antunes and Larissa (just Larissa) in two in a defeat that took just 33 minutes. Yikes. As an inquiring sportswriter might ask, if you can’t beat ‘em on a neutral site, how you gonna beat ‘em in Rio? Both the women’s and men’s indoor defeats were in five, although in the case of the men, it stung even more, since they were up 2-0 in sets, lost the third 28-26, and were ahead 12-10 in the fifth before losing the last five points. What’s more, they knew going into the match they had to win in either three or four to advance to the semifinals, so the fifth set was a moot point for the USA. And here’s the dagger: Brazil played mostly its second team....

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