By Mark Whicker, The Orange County Register –
LONDON — They did forward rolls on the Earls Court floor. They reached down and drummed the medal stand, in unison, when it was time to get rewarded.
They were Brazilian. When you’re Brazilian at the Olympics, you don’t get cheated.
(PHOTO: The United States’ Logan Tom (15) and Foluke Akinradewo (16) try to block a shot from Jaqueline Carvalho of Brazil the women’s indoor volleyball finals at the Summer Olympics in London, England, on Saturday, August 11, 2012. Brazil captured the gold medal with a 3-1 victory.)
“That’s the way they are, the way they celebrate,” said Logan Tom of the U.S. “I let it slide. I felt like saying, ‘Hey, dudes, get down from the medal stand if you still want to celebrate.’ But that’s Brazil. They’re very hot-blooded. They like to dance with their booty. They are who they are.”
And they are who they were in 2008. They are still Olympic gold medalists, after a clinical four-set victory over the Americans.
Thus the U.S. team settles for silver and still hasn’t won a gold medal in this event.
The scores were odd: 11-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-17. The U.S took that 1-0 lead in just 23 minutes. But Brazil clicked off the first three points of Set 2 and kept the pressure on throughout.
Tom and Destinee Hooker led the Americans with 14 points. Hooker, who had been a particularly tough chore for everyone else, was only 13 for 33 in spikes.
“They started controlling the rhythm of the game,” said team captain Lindsay Berg. “Normally we do that. For some reason we couldn’t turn it. We lost two sets previously in this tournament and still felt we had control. Tonight we didn’t have control.
“We had trouble passing the ball from the back, which basically is what allows me to do what I do (set up the big hitters). It’s tough because we were undefeated all summer.”
Coach Hugh McCutcheon scrambled to change things, at one point using Danielle Scott-Arruda, who turns 40 in October and has been in six Olympics.
“Brazil started hitting in some directions where our defense wasn’t anticipating,” McCutcheon said. “We were set up for a couple of different things and they came up with an answer.
“After the first set I knew that Brazil would play better. I’m not naïve. They did a good job on Destinee and we didn’t deal with their block as well as we should. Usually when teams do that, it frees up other players.”
McCutcheon coached the men to gold in Beijing, after his father-in-law was stabbed to death during a visit to the Beijing Drum Tower.
“This Olympics has been more ordinary,” he said. “No outside issues. But we wound up with an Olympic medal, so actually it wasn’t very ordinary. Extraordinary, in fact.”
The Brazilian celebration threatened to go deep into the night and might even last until 2016, when the Games come to Rio de Janeiro.
“We have no qualms about how they celebrate,” McCutcheon said. “We don’t do it the same way when we win. There’s room for differences.”
Said Berg: “We respect their happiness.”