The Olympic Games in Beijing - Elimination Round

So its now pretty safe to assume that the US will finish 2nd (4-1) in pool A...better than what they did in Athens (2-3). But i still think that from quarterfinals on, it will be very hard. The match between Poland and USA was 2 of my favorite teams. If Poland won over USA, i would still be happy. Poland is an amazing team with potential, seeing them leave at this early is .

Brazil is amazing. Should they won the title, it is such a clear dominance from them. They deserve this.

Im happy that LT is atleast showing some signs of recovery.

Brazil is an amazing team, but I'm still unsure if they can play like this in the final match. As for now, they can beat every other team 3-0 in group matches. If they will play like this also in the final, the gold medal will be their. And it will be a huge achievement for them, because they will demonstrate that they can win against nerves too.

BTW, their way of playing is simply wonderful.

About European teams (Italy, Russia, Poland and Serbia), they demonstrated again that their game is aburrido (spanish word for boring and without inspiration, and it expresses better the way they are playing)

Quote from samba player

Brazil is an amazing team, but I'm still unsure if they can play like this in the final match. As for now, they can beat every other team 3-0 in group matches. If they will play like this also in the final, the gold medal will be their. And it will be a huge achievement for them, because they will demonstrate that they can win against nerves too.

I agree with that. Although I still wish and hope that Russia would win the Gold, I think Brazil will win it if they will play their "samba volleyball" during crunch time. I guess the Brazilian girls are sick of being runner-ups for the past years and that may be a motivating factor for them. I wish them all the best.

But, I am still wishing and hoping that the Russians will bring their game on when it matters most, I still have faith on Sokolova, Artomonova, Godina and Gamova that they will not go down without a fight. I just wish that their setters have the same motivation too.

Quote from samba player

About European teams (Italy, Russia, Poland and Serbia), they demonstrated again that their game is aburrido (spanish word for boring and without inspiration, and it expresses better the way they are playing)

some more aburridos than others. But I'm with you, we expect more from them

Come on samba, Italian and Serbian volleyball is not aburrido at all. Leo and Maja are terrific setters.

I heard this comment about Brazil maintaining their level of play since the Grand Prix. There are 3 matches missing from Brazil's dream come true.
So far, all I can see is that Brazil's team is very focused and the girls are facing all their opponents as if it was the match of their lives. As they have a one-day break between one match and the next one, I strongly believe they will keep their form till the final match of the OG.

Brazil's preparation for the OG was made in a manner that the team would reach the top of its technical and physical form at the OG.

So far Brazil is ranked 2nd in attack, 1st in block, 5th in serve, 1st in dig, 3rd in set and 1st in reception. That's impressive!

Does anyone know why Molnar never plays for Serbia? Vesovic is not quite convincing And what does Terzic think taking Djerisilo out after 2 minutes???

i hope russia wins this one vs Serbia..or if russia lose i will go crazy..
i saw the pictures of the match pol vs usa i saw two pics of glinka after matches
she is so realy sad... dis the last olympics of Glinka wat Do u think guys????

Ok I eat my words, today Vesovic plays fine so far. Russia takes the first set 25-21 but only because they got the better start into the set. In the 2nd half of the set they played the same way as in the previous matches: weak reception which puts Sheshenina into trouble, her sets are very unconsistent, none of the attackers is in her best shape. And Kabeshova...I have no words! She digs almost NOTHING! No matter who will be Russia's opponent in QF (Cuba/USA/China) should easily beat them unless they drastically improve!

Serbia is embarrassingly bad. Shockingly bad. I feel sorry for Poland who have to go out while this crappy team goes through.
Perhaps it's time for Terzic to step out now.

Molnar is not playing because she didn't quite recover from surgery and regain good form.

So why is she in Beijing if she's not ready and Spasojevic is staying home. I guess we'll never know.
Serbia is playing like Poland did at WC '06. They are lucky to be in this group, they would have lost to Japan probably.

I'm switching to athletics now, can't watch it anymore.

Then I really don't understand why Terzic took her there and left e.g. Nesovic at home

And I have to agree with Joana. Russia plays ok today, solid but nothing exceptional. All they have to do is serve and block. Lyuba and Zhenya play some good defense (at least they can do it, in contrast to their so-called libero). Russian attack also is ok today. Akulova and Fateeva came in towards the end, and the first thing Akulova did was playing an unhittable set, I was surprised that it was not even called technical error. Right now I think Sheshenina is the better of the two setters. But still, like this Russia has no medal chances

What happened to Citakovic's blocking ability? She even can't touch the ball.

Terzic's doing some mistakes with the team, but where are the experienced players now??
It's like they aren't even there!! They count just as much or even more than the coach's choices.

Joana, I agree with you.

Russia won - 25-21,25-16,25-20

So an unexpectedly easy 3-0 for Russia. After all I must say Russia kept improving throughout the match. Sokolova and Artamonova played well in defense and also in attack, Merkulova had lots of single blocks against backrow attacks, Sheshenina was not great but solid and more precise than in the past matches.

For Serbia, only Veljkovic and Vesovic showed their potential. But what about Nikolic, Citakovic??? They're not even a shadow of their normal selves!! Also Brakocevic is far from her last year's performance, but I can accept that because she is still very young, so it is normal that she can't play great all the time.

im so happy russia won,wahaha
guys who wil russia opponet in quarterfinals??
china or US??

They can even face Italy in the QF. So far there's nothing we can do unless wait for the lots to be drawn.