USA vs Russia - tv show time

[BeiBei]

sistahsledge said:

I remember watching that match and wondering why wouldn't replace Liley, who wasn't being all that effective, with Weishoff, an all-world player who is probably the greatest OPP USA has ever had. Weishoff was near the end of her career but she still had the goods and the history of big against the Cubans. Turns out Liley had been sleeping with an assistant coach (who was no longer with the team). Nobody knows if that had anything to do with the subbing decisions but a Sports Illustrated article mentioned that it did affect the team cohesion.

Also in that match, I remember Kemner, who was a backup, going into the match with a lot of fire and giving the team a lift but the coach didn't keep her in long for some reason. And she had tons of motivation for crushing the Cubans. The cameras caught her seething on the sideline while the starters were letting the match slip away.

I did got hold of this match recently and I watched it a few times. It was actually quite entertaining though the score were quite lopsided 15-1, 15-10,15-12

The second and third sets were good. To be fair to Liley, she was one who put the balls down consistently and even the commentator commented on the same thing. Tee Williams was playing badly and was pulled in the first set. The 2 middles were no match to the Cuban middles especially Carvajal who had 9 blocks. Elaina Oden was really off. Cross Battle also cannot do much.
Scott was good but too young and she had to play all around then, her serving and passing skills were weak.

Kremner did well but only came in late in the match. The coach were too afraid to make some subsitutions. But I still insisted Liley played well in that match

[Gorf]

sistahsledge said:

Can't help but wonder if there's some off-court issue that's messing up the team chemistry. This year's underperformance is eerily reminiscent of the situation in Atlanta '96.

That team went into the Olympics with big expectations. They had a good mix of veterans and young talent and had been playing well in the tournaments leading up. But you could tell they weren't playing as sharp as they could in the prelims then got bounced by a Cuban team in the quarterfinals. That Cuban team eventually won gold but at the time that they played USA, they weren't at the top of there game either and USA missed out on a big chance to advance.

It is similar in that the US team is again facing Cuba in an elimination match.

Though, wasn't the 1996 US team 4-1 in pool play before facing Cuba in the quarter finals?

This year it hurt the US team that their pool is tougher than the other pool, however, had they're own mistakes seem to be hurting them as much as anythiing in the matches they've lost.