Zé Roberto is going for his fourth Olympic medal as a coach and all 3 so far have been gold. That's insane. The way he put this team together basically last minute... he's an absolute gem. He and Lavarini are my favorite coaches these days, hands down.
Great point. This man is a legend. And to imagine all the shit he got from the fans. Honestly, I know it's mostly online stuff and in reality most people have know idea what's going on, they just want the coach to magically make their team win titles, not taking into consideration all the hard work that's supporting the glory moments.
By the way, an unpopular opinion here, I think: I know the OG are always the greatest, most dramatic competition, but... for 5 years, I've been hearing my fellow Brazilian fans comment on Rio, and how Rio was devastating. and China was such a trauma for us, and 4B business, and stuff. Ok, for sure Rio was a tough pill to swallow. But to me personally, the WCH 2018 was the real heartbreak. In Rio, I wanted and expected the team to move further, but, at the end of the day we were just unlucky to meet the amazing China in the quarterfinals. That's what happened to Russia today. One of the teams had to lose, despite playing fantastic volleyball.
2018 was a whole different story. It was the competition where we lost to various weaker teams and, in sense, where I really feel, not to take away the merit of Japan, Germany, Netherlands... but it's where the feeling, at least for me, is that we were losing to ourselves, and that's what was most frustrating.
Well, ZRG, criticized to death for his choices - and, to be fair, he's made some bad calls, but who hasn't - picked up the pieces, worked his ass off (in the meantime, did a wonderful job in Barueri) and was able to group together this team. I mean, regardless of what happens next, this is commendable.
