One Year Ago: USA vs Brazil

Here’s a very well written blog post by Beverly Oden who has over 20 years of volleyball experience. She is the youngest of the three Oden sisters, each of whom played in the Olympics as starting middle blockers.

From Miss Oden:

Here’s a step-by-step guide to how they (Brazil) did it:

1. Lower Their Guard

“I think in the first set we were in too much of a rush and just wanted to win the gold medal as quickly as possible,” Fernanda said. “We then calmed down and we were able to show what we can do.”

Anyone who saw only the first set of the gold medal match must have assumed that the Americans won easily. Brazil came out of the locker room way off their game. With several unforced errors, they handed the U.S. women too many points that they didn’t have to work for. No need to get the block going, no need to get their offense going, no need to do much on defense. All they had to do was stay steady and watch Brazil self-destruct.

In fact, the entire Olympic tournament seemed to be fairly easy for them. In seven Olympic matches the Americans went undefeated and lost only two sets total through the competition. Though the coaching staff and players made every effort not to underestimate any opponent and kept a high level of focus no matter who was on the other side, it is possible that the ease in which they won their pool and sailed through the playoffs did not prepare them for the ultimate test they’d see in the gold medal match.

Set one of the final was a rout. The Americans jumped out to a huge early lead and won the set 25-11. Brazil could have been embarrassed, they could have broken under the pressure, they could have accepted defeat at the hands of a stronger opponent. They didn’t.

2. Serve Tough

“That was the first team that took us out of our rhythm, our system,” said U.S. setter Lindsey Berg. “They served tough and we got in some passing trouble which leads to me not being able to do what I do best and give my hitters the best opportunity.”

When the whistle blew for set two, the Americans were ready to continue rolling. Brazil wasn’t going to let that happen. They immediately put the first set behind them. They forgot about it and started over fresh.

It began with the serve. The Brazilians put real pressure on the U.S. women. They served tougher and chose better spots. The Americans struggled with serve reception and the bad passes took middle blockers Foluke Akinradewo, Christa Harmotto and leading scorer Destinee Hooker out of the offense for the most part.

The tough serving took its toll on outside hitters Jordan Larson and her replacement later in the game, Megan Hodge. Neither had strong passing performances and because they had to pay so much attention to the pass and bad passes were forcing the ball back to them on the outside, their hitting suffered. The Americans took tentative swings on off sets and the Brazilians pounced.

3. Attack the Block

“We had to trust in ourselves and our attack,” said Jaque. “We are two-time Olympic Games champions.”

Brazil had no such difficulty passing. With their good passing, they gave their setter choices. With those choices she was able to distribute a balanced offense. Even though their leading scorer, Sheilla, was having a rough night offensively, the Brazilian setter was able to get the ball to middles Thaisa and Fabiana as well as to the hot hand which turned out to be Jaque on the outside.

With so many options, the U.S. middles had to stay put until the setter released the ball and because of that, they were often late getting to the outside. That lead to good sized holes in the block which Brazil exploited with a ferocity we haven’t seen from them in years.

4. Catch Fire

“I think in sets two and three we kind of got away from each other and got on our own little islands instead of regrouping and playing as a team,” Destinee Hooker said. “I think they had a lot of great serving. They were serving hard and tough and really deep. I think our team wasn’t ready for that. We adjusted the way we could. We made a few changes and tried to step it up a notch but it just wasn’t enough.

Even with all of the above going for them, there was one more intangible they needed to gain the victory against a team that by all accounts was deeper and more talented. They needed to catch fire.

As the leading scorer of the gold medal match, Jaque started to feel it. She was swinging tough on every set, whether they were good or bad, tight or off the net. There are some nights when hitters can do no wrong. Jaque had one of those nights. Behind her attacking, the momentum went to Brazil and it stayed there. Soon, the Americans were thinking too much about what they could do individually to turn the game around and they stopped playing like a team. Coach Hugh McCutcheon told them in a time out that they were “trying to get it all done in one swing” and that they should think about just the next sideout.

The Americans were able to side out, but couldn’t score many points in a row because their opponent was dictating the tempo. Brazil also had an epic digging night. They out-dug the Americans 63-37 for the match. Defenders were all over the place and they were able to run a tight offense even in transition. Volleyball is a game of momentum. When you have it like the Brazilians did in this match, it’s about as difficult to stop as an oncoming train.

5. Put the Hammer Down

“Early in the fourth set, you could see on the faces of the Americans that there were under a lot of pressure and starting to crack for sure,” said Fabiana. “That’s when I knew we had it.”

Brazil is known for being streaky. When they’re hot, they’re hot. But if you can bust their bubble and slow their raucous celebrations during matches, you can douse a little water on them long enough to get the momentum back on your side. The U.S. women were able to fight back to within two points, but they weren’t able to extinguish Brazil’s fire.

Brazil never let up on the pressure. They never started to doubt that they could pull this off. They never gave the Americans a real chance to get back into the game. They only needed one chance at game point to finish it off. They kept the pedal to the medal until the last ball dropped.

Put all these things together and Brazil deserved to leave London with the gold medal around their necks. They are not the better team, but they played better than the U.S. on the right night. Now they’ll enter the 2016 Olympics on their home court as the reigning two-time gold medalists.

Click Here To Watch The 2012 Olympic Gold Medal Match USA vs Brazil
Click Here To Watch The 2012 Olympic Gold Medal Match USA vs Brazil
Click Here To Watch The 2012 Olympic Gold Medal Match USA vs Brazil