Trish’s Blog

I watched the women’s beach volleyball gold medal match last night and I have to say that after the first game, I wasn’t worried at all. I knew they’d win it. The first game was just to size up the other team with their crazy Chinese fans yelling in the stands. There was a moment during the first game (score was around 13-10) when the Chinese team got three points in a row to tie up. Homegirl (the drama queen one) was getting the serves and hitting the tape so that it rolled over and dropped just on our team’s side. The fans went nuts and even the line men were flipping their flags up or down with enthusiasm. During those three points it felt like the dreams of the Chinese team might actually be possible… a spark. They were smiling and happy and reveling in the glory of it all. And then there was a sideout and USA shut them down. They were neck and neck up until 17 points, but after that May and Walsh went for the jugular.

China celebrated too soon during those three points. The dream was like a flame that never took. The second game blew any chance of it right out. And the Chinese drama queen used three different ways up her sleeve to stall the inevitable. She stopped the game when she fussed with her ponytail and hat. She took a while to try to get sand out of her eye after Walsh intimidated her at the net pretending to hit the ball when it threatened to come over on the second hit. She even faked an injury or maybe she just wanted the medic to give her a massage on her arm. Whatever. It didn’t work. They got up to 18 points like they did the first game, and that was it. An image of them sprawling on the sand and getting the ball pounded at them is all that remains.

I’m proud of the way May and Walsh handled themselves even through the mistakes. It’s just a game afterall, and you can’t really think about it too hard. Not like Branaugh and Youngs, the other US team. Holy cow, their behavior was embarrassing. Poor EY, her last Olympics and her partner acted like a spoiled thirteen-year-old. Both of them making mistakes, but Branaugh unable to keep her anger in check and refusing to speak to her partner. The camera even caught her rolling her eyes at something EY said. Tsk, tsk! None of that emotion was evident with Misty and Kerri… they were focused and steady.

It was after the match when they got all goofy. Misty was jazzercising along with the Chinese cheerleaders. Kerri was looking around for someone to hug. It was weird how they took off separately instead of staying together the way they do when they’re playing. Still, it’s nice to see them acting human after such focused iron faces during the match.

Congratulations to these girls. Now go make some babies already.

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but since I’m doing it now… Here’s my take on the men’s team.

Congratulations to the US Men’s Beach VBall team! I just watched Dalhausser figure out how to block the Brazilian team (ooh, man, they’re scary) in a third game. The first game was tied all the way to set point and BRA was looking invincible. The second game hurt a lot, but Rogers and Dalhausser kept their cool even when Dalhausser’s blocks were looking like field goals (close the gap!). I will say that BRA got shown a yellow card almost unfairly. True, he probably was being as much of an a$$ as he looked to be doing, but Dalhausser touched the ball upon closer scrutiny.

What is it with the men’s teams and owning to their touches? We saw it happen with the indoor men’s team also. My face actually blushed when our indoor team didn’t own up. Don’t they know that cheaters never prosper? And that they’re representing our country? It makes winning cheap and losing ungraceful. Funny how I don’t feel as strongly about it for beach as I do for indoor… maybe because indoor has always been so mathematical and strict while beach has that hakuna matatah attitude.

At any rate, the third game was a slaughter. Way to go USA! Two gold medals to add to the pile.

Posted on August 22nd, 2008 by trish
Filed under: In My Opinion, vball