Brazilian women volleyballers have never be so close to their dreaming Olympic gold medal after beating defending champion China in straight sets. Their final opponents Americans have been there before, but it is 24 years ago.
The two teams, ranked world's No. 1 and No. 4, were set up to clash on Saturday's final after crushing the dreams of the defending champion China and three-time champion Cuba both with a merciless 3-0.
Neither the overwhelming cheers of the Chinese fans, nor the slow start at the opener has made the Brazilians retreat.
After a close win 27-25 at the first set, the South American controlled the game with powerful serves and flawless defense. Their Chinese rivals, on the contrary, behaved nervous under the pressure of the team's strategy of "grasping at least one of the first two sets".
The host committed more errors at the crucial points, surrendering the second set 25-22.
The South Americans found no troubles to clinch the victory 25-14 from a collapsed Chinese team. But the victory came so fast that even the Brazilian Sheilla Castro could not believe.
"It seemed they (Chinese players) didn't want to play in the third set," she told Xinhua.
"This is the first time that Brazil have entered the Olympic final and I'm very proud. We finally beat a strong team like China," said Brazil head coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes.
However, the ecstatic Brazilians had no time to think more about this seventh straight-set victory at their seventh Olympic tournament. Their best records were two bronze medals in 1996 and 2000.
"We have to focus on the next match against the US now. They have been improving through the Game. The match will be hard, but we will concentrate on ourselves," said Castro.
While the Brazilian players were speaking out their excitements in front of cameras and digital recorders, their Chinese counterparts were weeping for the "heartbreaking loss" at the locker room.
"Some veteran players were still depressed," said China's head coach Chen Zhonghe at the post-match press conference. "The game exposed the problems we found in training -- We are lack of attacking strength and we are also unstable on the cooperation between setters and attackers."
"But the loss didn't shake our confidence and we will help each other to overcome the heartbreaking loss to prepare for the bronze match," said Chen.
It will be no easy job for China to take on Cuba, who won gold medal at the Games in 1992, 1996 and 2000, in the bronze medal. They had lost 3-2 to Cuba in the preliminaries.
Earlier in the afternoon, the American women celebrated their historic return to the Olympic final in 24 years on Thursday afternoon with big smiles on the tearful faces.
The last time the United States contented for an Olympic gold was in 1984, where they surrendered the championship at the home court of Los Angeles to China, just led by their current head coach "Iron Hammer" Lang Ping.
It only took the Americans 67 minutes to accomplish their sweet revenge 25-20, 25-16 and 25-17 for a straight-set loss to Cuba in the preliminaries.
"I am happy for myself, but I'm happier for the players. They deserve it. They've worked hard for three or four years and cooperated well," said Lang, who was described by US player Logan Tom as "squeaking like a little girl" after the surprising 3-0 win.
Just steps away from the ecstatic American team, misty eyes could also be seen on the stern faces of Cuban players. Four-time Olympian Yumilka Ruiz hid her sorrows behind a white towel, while wing spiker Nancy Carrillo scrunched up her face and rubbed her hand over the eyes.
"America played well. Our two main problems were service and service reception. In the preliminaries Cuba was better at service and service reception, but in the second game, America was better," said the Cuban head coach Antonio Perdomo.
American opposite Tayyiba Haneef-Park led all players with 12 points in the game and she didn't try to hide the team's ambition for more.
"Our goal all along the four years is to do what we didn't do in Athens, to get the gold medal, tomorrow is a new day of practice and we will come out here to give what we can," she said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)