For those of you volleyball players, you MUST see the 5th set in the match between Brazil and Italy. I won't say the winner, but the score goes into the 30's!! I couldn't believe it as I watched the score go up! For those unfamiliar with volleyball scoring, it is rally point, where every rally means a point. It used to be the same as badminton scoring (even up to 15, but win by 2), but they sold out to the attraction of improved television marketability and changed it to 25 points with rally point to make it more "exciting." It IS more exciting, but the quality of the game went down. Also, the 5th and deciding set only goes to 15 points, and this one made it to over double that! Again, a must see. Phil (who has stayed up all night (its 6AM now) watching the Olympics so he can sleep on the plane tomorrow, er... today morning to Coddy-fornia (gotta love Ahh-nold)... hey I can see sunlight!)
yes, I'm not really interested in volley-ball but I saw the end of this match, it was real fun! great fight on both sides!
china vs. russia for the final now. russia is leading winning first two sets both on deuce. 30/28 - 27/25. not looking too good for china. the russia coach is hilarious, he yells at the players on every timeout. i wonder if the Chinese coach ever calls a timeout just so the Russian players gets yelled at.
Yeah he's known for that. Must be disappointing for Russian team having to settle for Silver at Sydney and now Athens. Phil
In volleyball, it's fairly common that teams come back from 2-0 down and win 3 straight for the match. Volleyball is one sport where "game momentum" is extremely important. Coaches use time outs all the time, mostly to disrupt the opposition's momentum, rather than to give their own team information.
Yeah, this was one heck of an exciting match... 3 of the last 4 women's Olympic volleyball matches went to a full 5 sets!! Imagine China's performance if they actually had a non-injured Zhao in the lineup!!
i actually have never seen Zhao play. but i was really impressed by Feng Kun and Zhang Fei. very calm and composed. Zhang was reliable throughout the match as the hard hitter while Feng was composed and played smart despite all the pressure they had. Russia was playing very well for the first two game, but they started to run out of ideas when China started returning the smashes.... erm... i meant spikes from Gamova and Shashkova. they then slowly crumbled while the Chinese held on. i was on the edge of the seat throughout..
China's players also had the best stats in the end, in overall comparison to the other nation's players. Now, I just hope tomorrow's Men's match will be just as exciting... cuz I ain't getting up at 5am for nuthing!
Imagine if this happened in badminton. There would be people shouting out gamesmanship - the players should win by skill alone
I was at the mamak to buy some tandoori chicken and naan (yum!) just now when I saw the first set of Brazil vs Italy going on, and boy, how I have forgotten about the excitement of the game! Apparently it's the world #1 squaring it off with #2. Should've sat down to watch!
It was funny watching him yell at his players, but even more funny seeing him laugh because he couldn't believe China would come back 2-2, and later finish them off with the deciding game. This is to whoever watched the v-ball game last night, I loved the commentator from tvb channel 1, he's the most funniest commentator I've ever heard from. I loved the part where at the end he says "there's tears from both sides, hot and cold" <-- you'll probably understand this if you know cantonese. wild.
wow...3-2...nicely done. hey, does anybody know if zhao will get a medal since she was part of the team in the first match against USA...but got injured too bad about her injuries....would have been nice to see some high thundering spikes not just from gamov...or should it be game over? well done for the team in figuring out how to defend those spikes
Yes, I saw a photo of Zhao with her medal. Also, it doesn't matter who actually played in the game, etc.. as long as the individual was enlisted as a CHN squad member of these Olympics. So, all of the Chinese subs who didn't get any playing time receive medals too. Yeah, Zhao can definitely go one on one vs Gamova in spiking ability.. she used to always rank 1 or 2 in spiking stats for major tournaments. In this match, the Chinese team was severely outsized but luckily had much more speed and used quick attacks to frustrate the Russian big wall.
ah good....because in the UK premiership, i think you have to play in at least 10 games to get the medal if you win the league....or something. well, that's good, at least she gets an olympic gold
