A ruthless Brazilian team humiliated defending champions China with a 3-0 demolition in the semifinals of the Beijing Olympic women's volleyball tournament on Thursday.
The host team, having aimed to revive its A-game with a title-winning feat after the year of 2007 was marred by too many injuries, even dropped the third set in just 20 minutes.
"China played a good first set, but we played better in the remaining time and was boosted by our defence and we serve well too. It looked as if they don't want to play in the final set," Brazilian winger Sheilla Castro said.
Brazil, now ranked No. 1 in the world, will meet the United States in the final on Saturday, a team that the South Americans have beaten in seven of all eight meetings since 2003.
While China will compete for a bronze medal against Cuba, who has rallied from two sets down to beat China in the preliminaries of the tournament.
"It is the first time for Brazil to reach the Olympics final, and it makes some more sense especially after beating a strong team like China in a tough match," Brazil head coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes said at the press conference.
"We looked nervous in the first set, but after winning the set, we began to calm down and played what we want, and I think we are better in serving, blocking and attacking."
The Chinese were in form quickly, with spiker Li Juan and Zhou Suhong scoring early points to move the Chinese team 3-0 up in the opening set. Then Brazilian team answered with an excellent back-court attack from Sheilla Castro.
Trailing 5-1 behind, the South Americans found the range, and after a block from Paula Pequeno, Brazil cut the cushion to within one point, 5-4.
To a noisy home crowd, the Chinese team looked tight, making many unforced errors and Brazil took chances to level it at 12-all.
Then much younger setter Wei Qiuyue came in for an underperforming captain Feng Kun. It worked effectively as Chinese spiker Wang Yimei, Li and middle blocker Zhao Ruirui racked up some fine winners to build up the lead once again.
The second technical timeout came with China in front 16-14, but it was the Brazilian who shrugged off tension to play their game, which helped them beat off two set points and then have two straight points to claim the set at 27-25.
The two teams battled hard in the second set, but the South Americans started to take control. Trailing 6 -3 behind, China coach Chen Zhonghe had the 19-year-old Wei replace Feng again but the Chinese were still playing below standard and especially had trouble in blocking and making too many mistakes.
Brazil brought up the second technical timeout ahead at 16-13 while China could never really pose a threat upon the opponents.
After Li and Zhao spiked long twice in a row, Brazil set up a comfortable 24-20 lead and converted on the third set point to take the set at 25-22 thanks to China's Zhou serving to the net.
Coming into the third set, the Chinese lost pace uncharacteristically and were in serious trouble with their defence falling to pieces. Brazil took the set at 25-14.
"We took care of the players' mindset coming into the match, so it is OK to play with the home advantage and it is not the home pressure to blame," said China's coach Chen Zhonghe.
"In volleyball, we play what we practise. I don't see hopeful things whenever we practised in the past year and the trouble is still there concerning attacking and the team work. Besides, some key players are playing below level. And if you want to play a strong team like Brazil, you can not depend on their errors to take points, you have to attack, but in today's game, I can't see it."
Spiker Yang Hao, Zhou, Feng and Liu Yanan, who used to play at the Athens Games, suffered the loss of confidence, added the coach. "I will talk to them, and we still have a match to come."
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2008)