Katowice (Poland)

15 July 2007

If one day should I ever explain what “a team in awe” means, I'll know exactly which example I should use. The final between Brazil and Russia will perfectly suit the purpose.
Russians faced this crucial match with the highest resolution and the firm belief that should be the day to stop the long-lasting Brazilian victories.
Russia is one of the strongest teams, technically very skilled and pretty experienced. Brazil, on the other hand, found not a few difficulties to get onto the right rythmn to the final. The Brazilian long list of vistories is “dreadful” indeed, but one of the most imperative rules in sport is: never look back.
You can’t rely on past victories to win in the present: if you do, those victories might let you drown.

Let me focus on tonight’s match. Russians easily won the first match, no the slightest mistake was made. Brazilians have been overwhelmed by the “giants’s” strength. Despite this, nobody has ever considered the match over. Far too often we all witnessed Giba’s team resurrection (i.e. during the World League Final 2006, in Moscow, Brazil was losing 0-2 against France but it ended up winning).
The second game seemed to be in the Russians hands as well, when – almost at the end of it – a reception dumb mistake allowed the Brazilians to get up again. At this very moment the awe effect standed out dintinctively. What the Russians had succeeded in until then, suddenly faded away.
Brazil won the second set only two points ahead. Same pattern for the following sets.
The Russians actually kept on playing great in the first half of the set, but as soon as the match reached its balance, it was clear that the Russians would have been the first making a mistake.
This is what happened in the third and fourth set, ended 28-26 and 25-22 for Brazil.

Brazilians want to destroy the idea that no team is unbeatable, Bernardinho’s players  seem to be invincible.

Bye bye andrea zorzi.

Katowice (Poland)

15 July 2007

Everybody in Poland is wondering: why why and why! Only two days ago the Polish team overwhelmed the United States and today has lost without ever being able to play a proper game.
Well, let’s try to figure it out starting from the two teams different expectations. The US team was already satisfied after their qualification  for the final round. Its aim was to develop their skills playing some high level and tough games.
As Hughes McCutcheon said in the long interview published in this Blog (take a look) many of his players play only in US colleges, therefore they can’t take any advantages of playing in competitive national leagues abroad. The only key they have to improve their level is to play against the best world’s teams as much as possible.
They were able to overtake the two lost matches (versus Poland and Russia) without suffering too much. They thought that winning bronze medal could actually be a great achievement, so they played with fully enthusiasm.
Polish team instead, had strongly hoped to reach the World League Final and semifinals defeat caused a great distress indeed. Playing today’s match thinking about the previous lost match, has made everything much more stressful. Moreover, Poland felt the pressure to get “at least” the third position.
The match result is exactly the mirror of what happened today in Spodek Hall, what a pity for the nice Polish supporters!

Why USA won: there is not doubt that the US better spike and better efficiency in reception were the technical keys to victory, but the Polish psychological approach was really disappointing.

Bye bye andrea zorzi