2016 Olympic Games - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I agree with scarpetta that numbers don't matter much tonight but still i could not resist and took a look.
As i already thought, the unsung hero of the match clearly was Lanza. Most efficient wing spiker(15/29) and best receiver of his team. Well done

First of all, Congratulations to Italy! But I'm really sad for USA . I've only watched the 1st set because it was already late here and I needed to sleep. They could have won the 1st set. They had the chance to win it in 3/straight sets. They were up 23-19 in the 1st set and then bam it became 23 all. Hoping they'll get the bronze.

Brazil looking like a whole different team from just a couple of days ago, toying around with Russia

Looks like Brazil will be in the finals.

Oh well, it was a very good run. It's going to be a still very nice silver for Italy.

Brazil is back. Can't wait for final , Brazil vs Italy, just what I wanted.

Sincerely I can't imagine Brazilians loosing their third final in a row, moreover in their arena. We'll need a miracle in order to stop our curse on olympic games

i think brazil will win but i want italy to win

USA lost because Hillary Clinton lies every day.

The Brazilians said they won't get a good night of sleep for sure before the final.

They have been going to bed around 4am, so will be a big change from playing at 10:30pm to 1:00 pm tomorrow.

But they said this won't matter and won't affect anything, Italy has been playing the 2nd to last game often also.

http://olimpiadas.uol.com.br/n…rio-em-final-do-volei.htm

Now, when China won Gold in Women's area, Olympics from 2004 are on table.

There China also won Gold, in Men's Final also were Brazil with Italy and Brazil won.. Russia were 3rd.. situation can look as copy of 2004.

The only advantage on our side is Brazil playing home, which means that any result not being a gold medal would be a national catastrophe, for once they have more pressure than us.

I still don't think we're going to beat them (and wondering what have we done to deserve losing 3 finals) but at this point can't really blame this team for anything.

And I will take Italy's Olympic curse over the Netherlands (win gold and disappear forever), Poland and Argentina curses any day.

Disappear forever? Since when winning Silver and Bronze is called disappear? Then thousands of them out there never existed.

Quote from rbdfabio

Disappear forever? Since when winning Silver and Bronze is called disappear? Then thousands of them out there never existed.

NEtherlands didn't win silver and bronze after 1996. Disappeared.

It looks like our OGs are over since the 4th set of the semifinal. Since then Anderson is the usual disaster when it comes to crucial points. Sperow is making weird choices: he took off our only fearless wing, Russell, instead of Sander. Priddy is doing a very good job. When passing doesn't work there's no player to go. Anderson, after 3 games on fire, is back to his heart of a rabbit mode. I can get it anyway, he's the third choice in spiking in his club; there's no Leon here to save the team.

Quote from SHAME

It looks like our OGs are over since the 4th set of the semifinal. Since then Anderson is the usual disaster when it comes to crucial points. Sperow is making weird choices: he took off our only fearless wing, Russell, instead of Sander. Priddy is doing a very good job. When passing doesn't work there's no player to go. Anderson, after 3 games on fire, is back to his heart of a rabbit mode. I can get it anyway, he's the third choice in spiking in his club; there's no Leon here to save the team.

I know you like Russel but he hasn't been playing good since the semifinal too.. But I agree, Sander is also doing nothing on court.. Thomas did a great job coming in, and it should be him and Reid IMO

Quote from USAvolleyfan

I know you like Russel but he hasn't been playing good since the semifinal too.. But I agree, Sander is also doing nothing on court.. Thomas did a great job coming in, and it should be him and Reid IMO

I'm not talking about volleyball, skills, shots and so on. I'm talking about being brave. Russell is. Priddy is as well. Since he came in I can see a clear mental leadership by Reid, which was what we were missing at the beginning. Russell has been this all along till this match.

Massive choke by Russia. They served the hell inside our half of court in the first 2 sets, but now they can't keep that rythm from the service line. And Kliuka is no longer a factor in spiking luckly.

We are just playing ok now, but it's more than enough. Good Sander and Priddy now. Anderson is still invisible.