Brazil - Italy Gold Medal Game (spoiler)

[Nutter]

Wow! 1st set just over and Italy looked like they were just schooled by Brazil.

Brazil up 1 set, winning 25 - 15. Italy let in the early stages, but just could not sustain. Maybe it's the gold medal match jitters.

[sIsam]

Nutter said:

Brazil up 1 set, winning 25 - 15. Italy let in the early stages, but just could not sustain. Maybe it's the gold medal match jitters.

Brazil was just too scrappy for the Italians in the first set. 2nd set is much close and ITA has been leading most of the way. ITA had their chance to finish off at 24-23 but was blocked then finished off on 2nd try at 26-24.

[Nutter]

Italy finally woke up.

Tied match by winning 2nd set, 26 - 24.

Looks like this match will go 5 sets. Yay!

[vbtwin]

Brazil up 2-1 and 10-9 in set 4; live on CBC in Canada ( at least in Ontario)

[Nutter]

Brazil's the Olympic Gold Medal Winner in 4 sets:
25-15, 24-26, 25-20, 25-22.

Brazil wanted Giba to score the championship point, setting him exclusively, but the last point was on the Italian ball hitting the antenna.

This was an exciting game nevertheless.

CBC showed the entire match live. Now why didn't I tape the dang thing?

[Will Rogers Beach]

NBC is showing the Gold Medal game today at 4 PM and the Bronze Medal game at 7 PM (primetime with the closing ceremonies). I don't think the Gold Medal match was shown on CNBC. That was the original schedule but it was revised (at least for my cable here in LA).

[KO7]

Nutter said:

Brazil's the Olympic Gold Medal Winner in 4 sets:
25-15, 24-26, 25-20, 25-22.

Brazil wanted Giba to score the championship point, setting him exclusively, but the last point was on the Italian ball hitting the antenna.

This was an exciting game nevertheless.

CBC showed the entire match live. Now why didn't I tape the dang thing?

I thought in the final stages of the match including match point, Brazil kept setting that late-substitute, Anderson, (that relatively short player with the really really hard jump serve).

And I was really getting pissed off at CBC for showing too many commercials and talking too much between sets. By the time they showed the 2nd set, it was already 6-6. The start of the 4th set was 5-3. Also, they missed a few points after technical timeouts: Once, they showed so many commercials during a technical timeout that when they got back to the match, it was already the end of an additional timeout that occured 2 points AFTER the technical timeout.

I realize they need to make money somehow by airing commercials, but they went totally overboard with the amount of commercials and the amount of talk by that CBC anchor lady who kept talking about upcoming events, the closing ceremony, and Canada's female taekwondo athlete who had just lost a prelim.


Edit: My mistake, they did set Giba twice in a row for match-point.

[sonofbarcelonabob]

Italian coach should have went to Giani. Either for Cernic at OH, or even for Sartoretti at OPP. Sartoretti did not have a good match.

Amazing performance by both teams, though. They are clearly on another level than the rest of the world. Serbia and Montengero and Russia can once in awhile hang with them, but over the long course, Brazil and Italy are the two best teams in the world.

[KO7]

I agree, they should have kept Giani in, if even to respect him for what he's meant to Italian volleyball for the past 2 decades.

I do think that Serbia and Montenegro can hang with Brazil and Italy though, but only if Ivan Miljkovic is healthy and playing.

[doctordubya]

KO7 said:

I agree, they should have kept Giani in, if even to respect him for what he's meant to Italian volleyball for the past 2 decades.

I do think that Serbia and Montenegro can hang with Brazil and Italy though, but only if Ivan Miljkovic is healthy and playing.

Agree completely - Serbia might have won this tournament with a fully-fit and in-form Miljkovic. Match-ups between Serbia and Brazil are usually classics, so it's a pity they went out in the quarters.

As far as Italy go, I've been saying for years now that Sartoretti is not quite up there with the best opposites. That's not to say he's bad - I think he is at least as good as Andre on the Brazil team. But the point is that Italy use the opposite as their go-to guy, whereas Brazil uses their outsides more than the opposite in bail-out situations.