Olympic Games - 2016 | 8 | 6

    3/2 for Holland ! What a surprise ! Exciting game with rallyes and top class skills .

    Les pieds dans le fumier, mais toujours le verbe haut et la tête droite ! Cocorico !

    congrats Dutchies! i didnt expect them to beat China...i just was able to watch the tie breaker so i dont have a certain opinion on the match but these are the first matches of the tournament so lets wait and see what the teams will do in the next days...

    china choked. lang ping choked. 12 loss to japan or 16 to the dutch which is the bigger upset?
    let's put this notion that lang ping is the best coach in the world to rest now!
    it doesn't matter if china still wins the gold in the end.


    congratulations to the Netherlands. i think it's guidetti's game plan to get other involved early and go to sloetjes in the end.
    it worked out very well. sloetjes was amazing down the stretch.

    Good work Netherlands!


    First time ever that I don't like Lang Ping's coaching. China did well in second set and Lang Ping played so much with the team with substitutions and it failed for their sake. I'm glad to see Wei back and Yuan in and Hui as well but why make so many changes in a team which actually won 2 sets?


    On the other side of the net, Slöetjes finally took all the responsibility and showed us that she is becoming a player of top level competitions as well. A big applaud to Guietti for all his work with the Dutch team, it is not an easy task when you think that the entire country failed to develop even a single decent setter. With a good setter, Dutch team will can stay at the top for years. :box:

    Japan's upset was much worse, but not unexpected in my mind.
    China should have beaten Netherlands, at most Netherlands get 1 set. But that's a big win for Netherlands in B. China will hope that Serbia or Italy sweep. That point is going to be key possibly with still USA, Serbia and Italy to play.

    Yeayyy Netherlands. :dance4: A thoroughly entertaining match. Slotjes found her confidence again in the 4th set. They could be medal contenders but first they need to stop giving away so many points with their serves.


    Zhu Ting was hitting so many over the blocks. :obey: Yuan is a freaking banshee with her blood-curdling screams. :cursing:

    This result complicates further more Italy's situation: if Holland could be considered the opponent Italy could beat, today they demonstrated they are really a strong team. Cingrats to them! China didn't convince me, let's see how they continue.

    Wow!!! My favorite kind of Olympics are filled with surprises. I am shocked by the China x Netherlands result. (I hope they air it in the USA so I can watch it in hi-def!) China is still one to watch for the gold, but this means they probably won't win the group and could lose in the quarters to Russia or Brazil.


    And S Korea - not just KYK - is looking great.They're one of my favorite teams, so I would love to see them pull an upset and make it past the quarter finals. I'm hoping their match against Russia will be super intense. I don't know if Korea can defeat them, but serving well and using their tricky off-speed middles will frustrate them, and Russia does often fall apart when frustrated. Either way, I just want to see a good match.


    Some great action on the beach, too. Gallay/Klug x Lili/Elsa. Fantastic rallies! I'm feeling the Olympic spirit!

    Typical game plan by Guidetti against opponents considered generally stronger as his team (he did that often with German team in the past too): serving with full risk and don't mind many serve errors to break reception and sideout of the opponent. This is one of the key reasons, why the Dutch could upset favorite China today I think.

    losing to BRA 25-21 is nothing shameful. not watching the match, but 2 years ago at WCh, I remember 3 players were very impressive, moma, nana and fotso. nana is the lefty OPP? she was the best player in the team. ARG better watch out.

    Quote from ossubtus

    losing to BRA 25-21 is nothing shameful. not watching the match, but 2 years ago at WCh, I remember 3 players were very impressive, moma, nana and fotso. nana is the lefty OPP? she was the best player in the team. ARG better watch out.

    Nana is playing as OH, Moma as OPP.


    Ze did a good job putting the subs on court in 3rd set. Jaque and Gabi look much more motivated than Natalia and Sheilla earlier, so 3rd set was a much easier story for Brazil.