PARIS, France, August 5, 2024.- The United States came out on top in one of the biggest rivalry matches in international men’s volleyball, beating Brazil in straight sets on Monday, and advanced to the semifinals of the Paris 2024 Games.
Set to play Poland for a spot in the tournament’s gold medal match on Wednesday, the Americans split two close sets with the Brazilians before taking control of the match and progressing with a 3-1 (26-24, 28-30, 25-19, 25-19) victory at the South Paris Arena 1.
With the result, the USA are back in the Olympic semifinals after failing to break pool in Tokyo three years ago. This will be the seventh semifinal run in 13 appearances for the Americans, who returned home with medals in five of those occasions.
“We’re drained, because playing Brazil always takes everything out of you,” outside hitter TJ Defalco said. “I’m trying to take it as just another match because these are the quarterfinals and we didn’t win a medal or anything yet. Having a lot of options on our bench was huge, especially against a team like Brazil, because they have that too. We’ve been having more faith in our blocking and defense and that is key in the way we play.”
Brazil, on the other hand, will be out of the medal rounds in the Games for the first time since Sydney 2000 – their run of five consecutive semifinal appearances generated four medals.
Opposite Matt Anderson was the top American scorer in the match, producing 20 points (17 kills, three blocks), four more than outside hitter Defalco, who had 15 kills and one block. Middle blocker Max Holt, with 13 points, and outside hitter Aaron Russell, with 11, also got to double digits in scoring.
“I’m happy about the way we fought after we kind of gave up that second set,” Hold commented. “We stayed very poised, came back and played like a new game. Everybody fought and we did what we needed to do. Our blocking was really great in the fourth set and all credit goes to our coaching staff as they made a ton of great calls against one of the best offensive teams in the world. Being able to slow them down like we did was huge. We’ve been on a growing path since the start of the summer, and I feel like we’re peaking at the right time.”
Opposite Alan Souza came off the bench during the second set to be Brazil’s top scorer in the match, adding 16 points (14 kills, two blocks) for the South Americans. Outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli came next, with 15 (12 kills, two blocks, one ace).
After the match, setter and captain Bruno Rezende indicated this was his farewell with his country’s national team, leaving with three Olympic medals (gold in Rio 2016, silver in Beijing 2008 and London 2012) and many other titles.
“This is definitely not how I wanted it to end, but I go in peace knowing that I gave everything I had while I was here,” the setter said. “It’s sad to end it like this, but we fought until the end and did all we could to win today. With all that I got to win and experience in almost 20 years with the national team, I definitely can’t complain about anything.”
The USA had more kills (66 to 56), blocks (eight to seven) and aces (four to three) than the Brazilians, while the teams gave up the same number of errors (26).
Paris 2024 – Match Schedule and Results
The men’s semifinals will take place on Wednesday, with Poland and the United States meeting first, at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT), and France and Italy dueling in the second match, scheduled for 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT).
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