19th august 2008
Beijing (CHN)

In all tournaments, the quarter-finals day is actually a special day.

Although the semifinals and finals are more exciting, from the players’ perspective, nothing is more tense and thrilling than quarter-final matches.



CUBA – SERBIA 3–0 (26/24) (25/19) (26/24)

This match tells the story of two opposite psychological conditions.
Cuba, after the remarkable performances in the Preliminary Round, kept on playing with confidence and enthusiasm. Serbia instead, had to overcome the negative sensations accumulated over five poor games.

At this point, all the teams restart from scratch and it’s crucial to stop thinking about the previous matches. Those teams coming from encouraging matches have to avoid being overconfident and those, who played badly, have a unique opportunity to suddenly shift their destiny.

The morning match, played between Cuba and Serbia, with Cuba’s athletes having to put in a big fight to win the first set, , proved that the motivations coming from steadiness is more stable than that of relying on hope.
When facing the crucial points of the first set, the Cubans did the right things in the right moments.
On the other side, the Serbian players paid for their psychological uncertainties.
The victory in the opening set gave the steady Cubans more confidence, and they won effortlessly also the second one, and made the doubtful Serbians even flimsier.

The third set followed exactly the same pattern of the first: it was played point by point until the last point, when the Serbian spiker Nikolic was blocked by Nancy Carrillo, the Cuban middle blocker.
After the defeat, the Serbian players’ expressions displayed their deep feeling, which can be summarize in a few words: “we strived for the best but Cubans deserve this victory”.

By the way, the Caribbean athletes totally agreed with this opinion.


BRAZIL – JAPAN 3-0 (25/12) (25/20) (25/16)

Volleyball is a sort of arithmetical game: almost always, the stronger team wins against the weaker one. After the introduction of RPS, this peculiarity is less effectual but still resists. Nowadays, some matches which would have otherwise been trouble-free, turn to be balanced due to the new scoring system.

In the second quarter-final match, Brazil easily topped Japan and no one ever thought that the match could have ended differently.
The Brazilian athletes are too resolute, too prepared and too skilled, both technically and physically, to lose such a match. In the first set, the South American athletes started fast to make their superiority clear and the result (25/12) reflected such state.

They slowed down in the second set, due to the unavoidable relaxation that comes out from the predictability of the match and the third one was the copy of the first with only one actor in the court.

Now the Brazilians have to face China and it will be another kind of game.

We say goodbye to the Japanese players, who left the Olympic tournament happy despite the defeat. They succeeded in their biggest expectation just by qualifying for the quarter final.


CHINA – RUSSIA 3-0 (25/22) (27/25) (25/19)

On 22 –22, the block of Zhao, Chinese player, was the crucial point of the first set.
That frame confirmed the usual characteristics of both teams. China performed excellently in defense succeeding in 18 digs over 32 attempts (Russia achieved only 9/25 defenses). Although the Chinese team has only one spiker who can kill the predictable sets, their setter fully exploited the quick attack as much as possible.
The Russians represent the other side of the coin: slower and less motivated in the back rows fundamentals and more efficiently in attacking thanks to their distinguishing height and power.

The second set was decided by 13 errors of Russian players. They gained a “double” set point and, before they wasted the first chance failing an attack, they squandered the second easy opportunity because of a unforgivable inaccurateness in “second touch”. Gamova had to spike a ball too close the net and was stopped by a Chinese block.
To point out how significant the Russian mistakes were, consider that Chinese attack percentage was very poor (20%) and no one team can win playing in a such a way without the “help” of the opponent.
Moreover, China also won the last game and the match counting again on the unintentional Russian help.
The Russian athletes have to blame themselves and the Chinese can take a deep breath having overcome the trickiest Olympic tournament phase.


ITALY – U.S.A. 2-3 (25/20) (21/25) (25/19) (18/25) (6/15)

The first two sets, won one each, were substantially balanced. Both the teams played focused and were able to execute well in any phase of the game. There were a lot of long lasting rallies which made the match very exciting.
In the third set the Italian block and the US errors were decisive.

Then the match changed suddenly. At the beginning of the last two sets, Berg, the US setter, serving achieved two very long winning streaks, 8-0 in the fourth and 5-0 in the last one.
The amazing beginning improved the US performance and the athletes turned out to be unstoppable effortlessly overcoming the spiritless opponents.

I think the the Italians, after the victory in the third set, lost a great opportunity to reach the semi-final but the result was totally right.

Bye bye andrea zorzi