The United States scored a heroic come-from-behind win over
Brazil in Sendai on Wednesday to join Italy as the only teams
unbeaten at the 2007 women's volleyball World Cup.
With the 17-25, 16-25, 25-21, 25-23 and 15-9 victory, their
first over the Brazilians in three years, the Americans extended
their winning streak to five at the 12-team round-robin
tournament.
Having beaten strong squads including Brazil, Cuba and Poland,
Lang Ping's side was in a good position to finish top three in the
tournament thus to clinch a ticket to next year's Beijing Olympic
Games.
"Yesterday, I said Brazil had no weaknesses. You could tell in
the first two sets we weren't at the same level," said the Chinese,
a former world champion, at the press conference after the marathon
match.
"We played very bravely today. We tried everything -- I told
them you don't have to try and hit the safest spot; you have to be
brave, to do something different. Brazil is too different; you have
to break them down."
The Americans had a sluggish start in the high-profile match,
dropping the first set without much resistance.
In the second one, the United States managed to stay within
11-10, but then their reception was destroyed by smart jumping
floats of Sheilla Castro, allowing the Brazilians to surge away
with a 9-1 run for an unshakable 20-12 lead.
Finally, the Americans could play steadily their game and that
turned out to be the nightmare of Brazil.
Brazil fought hardly to cut its 21-13 deficit to 24-23 in the
fourth set, but a serve error of Paula Pequeno gave the set to the
United States, who jumped to a 7-2 lead in the tie break and never
looked back.
"In the first two sets, we couldn't pass or hit. After the first
two sets, I told them Brazil is a great team. But don't think about
the result, you have to be relaxed to win, so take it one ball at a
time," said Lang Ping.
"Everyone knows Brazil is a great team; they are flawless in
every aspect. For us to beat them, we have to play at the top of
our game. They won't give you the game," said US captain Robyn Ah
Mow-Santos. "In the first two sets our energy level was down. In
the third set, we had nothing to lose and we came all out. Then
they started to make errors and lose and that's what we
wanted."
Tayyiba Haneef-park converted on 24 of her 27 spiking
opportunities to score game-high 26 points for the United
States.
"It's a big win for us," said Haneef-park. "We didn't start out
strong, we lacked energy and didn't pass well. In the third set, we
decided we just had to leave our hearts and souls on the court. We
decided to dedicate our play for a teammate and I was playing for
my teammate Jen Joines. In the end, it was all passion, all heart.
We really wanted to win this game and it was a question of doing
whatever we had to do to get the win."
"I felt that throughout the entire game they kept their cool and
played calmly," said Brazil head coach Jose Guimaraes. "For us in
the first and second set, we played like I haven't seen in quite a
while. However, from the third set, the USA mixed up their play and
added new members to their lineup and from there, their attack and
counterattack and play in general just took off. They were able to
take over the game. In the end, the USA just played a great game,"
he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, Italy beat Japan 25-18, 25-19 and 25-14
for its fifth win in as many matches.
(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2007)