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Post by tree on Mar 13, 2016 11:33:38 GMT -5
Great start for WalRoss! Gold is good. More surprising to me is how the Brazilian women were taken out of the tourney.
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Post by OOTCDUDE on Mar 13, 2016 11:57:00 GMT -5
Agreed, despite the home country advantage. They could benefit from sports psychologists as Kerri and April have.
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Post by tree on Mar 13, 2016 12:31:41 GMT -5
Very strong showing for Germany on the women's side.Another team I am watching is Marta and Vicki from Italy. They are young and hungry. If they could get a little more consistent they could go far. No worries for Brazil they will bounce back. Jen and Emily Day got a new coach so I expect them to do better in the near future. The race for 2 spots with the 3 American women teams should be fun to watch.
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Post by tinman2 on Mar 13, 2016 13:15:10 GMT -5
The 23rd ranked team is a certainty if you come to play. Nick and Phil did not and paid the price. I get that it was raining, but it leads to renewed questions about this team's ability to play its best when things get tough. I stand corrected. Poland win it over Evandro/Pedro. Pretty boring match. Poland's quick attacks were interesting but a more aggressive ref would have shut a lot of that down. I really dont understand the Evandro/Pedro team. Both players best point scoring tool is blocking (except when Evandro's serve is going) and neither can play defense. A few times both this week and last, Evandro killed a jump serve, but then the other team scrambled it up to get a decent, but not good set, but then a shot that 80% of defenders on tour get falls in front of Evandro. Interested to see how Poland builds on this. Huge win What is a more aggressive ref
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Post by guest2 on Mar 13, 2016 14:56:34 GMT -5
I stand corrected. Poland win it over Evandro/Pedro. Pretty boring match. Poland's quick attacks were interesting but a more aggressive ref would have shut a lot of that down. I really dont understand the Evandro/Pedro team. Both players best point scoring tool is blocking (except when Evandro's serve is going) and neither can play defense. A few times both this week and last, Evandro killed a jump serve, but then the other team scrambled it up to get a decent, but not good set, but then a shot that 80% of defenders on tour get falls in front of Evandro. Interested to see how Poland builds on this. Huge win What is a more aggressive ref One who actually called several of the dubious sets the Polish team put up.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 13, 2016 15:12:23 GMT -5
Agreed, despite the home country advantage. They could benefit from sports psychologists as Kerri and April have. Brazilian teams seem to have a tendency to choke in the Olympics. There have been 5 or 6 Olympics that Brazilian teams should have won an didn't. Phil/Todd's Gold is remembered as a great comeback but it was also a monumental mental breakdown. Both Sydney finals, Allison and Emmanuel in London, Juliana and Larissa losing to Jen/April, Beijing. Not sure if thats indicative of anything, but it also used to be the belief indoors that the Brazilians could be gotten too mentally.
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Post by johnbar on Mar 13, 2016 15:40:18 GMT -5
Great start for WalRoss! Gold is good. More surprising to me is how the Brazilian women were taken out of the tourney. That is a great start after Kerri's latest shoulder surgery. I had been feeling a little skeptical of Ross/Walsh's Olympic chances. Happy to be proven wrong.
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Post by rsail203 on Mar 13, 2016 19:04:51 GMT -5
Tonight NBC Sportschannel at 11:30 is scheduled to show the Rio matches.
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Post by wang pu on Mar 13, 2016 19:06:27 GMT -5
Looks like Walsh/Ross will over take Kessy/Day after rio, even without the minimum number of events.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 13, 2016 23:39:13 GMT -5
Great start for WalRoss! Gold is good. More surprising to me is how the Brazilian women were taken out of the tourney. That is a great start after Kerri's latest shoulder surgery. I had been feeling a little skeptical of Ross/Walsh's Olympic chances. Happy to be proven wrong. Still good reason to be skeptical. Kerri hit maybe 2-3 balls in the two matches I saw. This wasnt quite the left handed finals run in Long Beach but she has a ways to go. Amazing they won with her playing Sinjin style offense
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Post by wonderwarthog79 on Mar 13, 2016 23:56:17 GMT -5
WR looked solid, doing as much as they needed to do. Interesting that the Polish team only scored one "real" point in the first game--an April flail.
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Post by swift on Mar 14, 2016 6:49:15 GMT -5
The 23rd ranked team is a certainty if you come to play. Nick and Phil did not and paid the price. I get that it was raining, but it leads to renewed questions about this team's ability to play its best when things get tough. I stand corrected. Poland win it over Evandro/Pedro. Pretty boring match. Poland's quick attacks were interesting but a more aggressive ref would have shut a lot of that down. I really dont understand the Evandro/Pedro team. Both players best point scoring tool is blocking (except when Evandro's serve is going) and neither can play defense. A few times both this week and last, Evandro killed a jump serve, but then the other team scrambled it up to get a decent, but not good set, but then a shot that 80% of defenders on tour get falls in front of Evandro. Interested to see how Poland builds on this. Huge win I agree. I don't really like that team. No defense, no finesse, just a lot of force and at times some good serves by Evandro. Nevertheless they have been able to get good results. The Polish team really surprised me. Some of their plays were pretty cool imo. Still quite a few unforced mistakes though. Usually you don't get away with several hitting errors in one set. But this just shows you that there are a lot of good teams on the tour and even Phil/Nick or Bruno/Alison have to play near perfect to win a tournament.
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Post by swift on Mar 14, 2016 6:58:19 GMT -5
Agreed, despite the home country advantage. They could benefit from sports psychologists as Kerri and April have. Brazilian teams seem to have a tendency to choke in the Olympics. There have been 5 or 6 Olympics that Brazilian teams should have won an didn't. Phil/Todd's Gold is remembered as a great comeback but it was also a monumental mental breakdown. Both Sydney finals, Allison and Emmanuel in London, Juliana and Larissa losing to Jen/April, Beijing. Not sure if thats indicative of anything, but it also used to be the belief indoors that the Brazilians could be gotten too mentally. you have a poin there. Although I wouldn't call Aliison/Emmanuel's loss in London a break down or anything like that. The German team had played very well that year and the game was super close. I still believe the ref should have taken a look at the ball mark on the final point. However you are right that the Brazilian teams were often the heavy favorites to win it all and they couldn't deliver. So there's a good chance we see the same thing happen this year in Rio. The pressure seems extremly high. Maybe too high...
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Post by haze on Mar 14, 2016 13:45:07 GMT -5
I don't like watching the Evandro/Pedro team. It's nothing but a straight up power team. They have no touch with the ball and no ball control. Their defense is terrible. They aren't even a very good serve recieve team. Evandro is one of the worst out of system setters I have ever seen play at an elite level. I don't know how many balls I saw him set too tight or over. Pretty amazing that that is where the game is right now.
The POlish team was interesting to watch. I wonder how young they are. I wish USA had some nice young guys that could play like that.
I am starting to get the Lucena/Dallhauser team but they are going to have to play tough to medal in Rio. Outside of them I'm not really liking the USA teams. I've grown tired of watching the Gibb/Patterson tandem and I don't think they are a threat in any way to medal. Hyden and Bourne have hit their ceiling and I feel like Theo and Rosie can't get out of their own way.
I can't wait until after Rio and see if US can get some new young blood involved on the FIVB.
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Post by gr8ful on Mar 15, 2016 9:31:08 GMT -5
I'm guessing by young blood you mean teams in their 20's LMAO. Anywho, Lucena/Dallhauser are the US best hope for a medal in the Third World, and I'm not going to hold my breath. I do think the Brazilians are solid, and home court might be an advantage and a curse, lots of pressure on them and I'm starting to believe they will crumble like goat cheese.
I will officially go on the record to state if Kerri takes home Gold for a fourth time she should be considered the greatest Olympian of all time
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