Revenge for themselves and for the girls: how Russian volleyball players heroically defeated the Brazilians and reached the final of the Olympics

Not a single playoff of the last three Olympics is complete without the confrontation between the men's volleyball teams of Russia and Brazil. For a long time, the paths of the two teams in the decisive stage of the tournaments did not intersect, until in the 2012 final they played one of the most outstanding matches in history. In it, Vladimir Alekno's wards bounced back from a score of 0: 2 in sets and brought the country the first gold in team sports in 12 years. Four years later, the Brazilians hosted the Olympics, and revenge was asking for itself. In the semifinals, they achieved their goal by taking over in three games.

At the Games in Tokyo, both teams added claims to each other. The Russians prevailed in the group stage, and they also spent the minimum number of sets and repeated the result of the last meeting in the League of Nations. But if then the defeat of the Brazilians could be justified by the training nature of the tournament, then in Japan it no longer. Seven Olympic champions as part of the South Americans could not do anything with Tuomas Sammelvuo's wards, among whom only Maxim Mikhailov remained on the site and Sergey Tetyukhin as general manager of the London victors.

But before the second meeting in the semifinals, the Brazilians managed to take revenge. True, the women's team did it. She beat the Russians at an earlier stage of the playoffs. Neither the first set taken, nor the confident game at the beginning of the second did not save Sergio Buzato's team from the fourth consecutive elimination in the first round. Thus, only the men's team and a couple of beach-goers Vyacheslav Krasilnikov and Oleg Stoyanovsky remained to pay off debts and fight for volleyball medals at the Games.

Sammelvuo for the seventh time in a row chose the same formation with Mikhailov, Yegor Kluka, Artyom Volvich, Dmitry Volkov, Ivan Yakovlev, Igor Kobzar and Valentin Golubev as the libero. It didn't work out right away - there were enough mistakes both at the reception and at the block. A good serve Volkov and Kluka allowed to keep up with the Brazilians for some time, but the 9: 9 score was the last moment in the first set, when the Russians were not inferior.

Further, mistakes appeared in all the components of the game, and I had to forget about the productive rallies for a long time. The Brazilians had no problems with attacks. Even the 35-year-old blocker Lucas, who took part in the London final, scored three points before the other diagonal ones on the court. Sammelvuo had to spend both time-outs even before the rivals exchanged their third dozen points, since the difference in the score was already five points.

But the coach's words did not work. The gap widened even after the fourth bloc of the Brazilians, while the Russians never had a single successful attempt in the entire game. And after the ace Lucarelli had to forget about the salvation of the party - the score was already 14:21. Soon, Renan Dal Zotto's charges earned seven set points. The Russians invested in one high-quality attack and played one, but then Volkov gave the opponent the point he needed with a decent strike out on the serve.

The Russian team began the second game with the long-awaited Mikhailov block.

Soon Volkov covered up the Brazilian attack, after which he struck powerfully.

The South Americans immediately took a time-out with the score 1: 4, but this pause did not knock down the mood of the Russians.

This was followed by two consecutive heroic rescues in defense, and on the serve Kobzar managed to win three points in a row.

Kluka's successful attack made the Brazilian coach nervous, and with a score of 5:10, he again called the players to a meeting.

But this did not help either - Wallace, a reliable attacker, immediately made a mistake.

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It cannot be said that the game of the Russians became flawless, since the flaws even in simple situations did not disappear, but only they allowed the Brazilian national team to score at least some points. When the opponent managed to close the gap to the worker (15:17), Kluka immediately doubled the gap. With such a difference, the Russians entered the end of the game and kept it until after a difficult move Kluk scored again. He earned nine points in two sets, Mikhailov did not lag behind him.

In the third game, the teams went on a par until the game at Volvich was upset. He failed not only with the attack, but also with his direct responsibilities on the block, so he had to be replaced by Ilyas Kurkaev. However, Golubev suddenly started having problems, who stopped picking up balls from the court. The Brazilians created a gap of four goals, and after a few minutes they even brought their advantage to such a level almost unbeatable in matches - the score was 19:12 in their favor. To save the match, Sammelvuo released Yaroslav Podlesnykh instead of Volkov, who had not been happy with his attacks for a long time.

Both replacements fully paid off. Kurkaev and Podlesnykh quickly reduced the gap to four points. Mikhailov also tried to keep up with them, who had both serve and attack in order. And when Podlesnykh started to kick in, the Brazilians literally poured in and made so many mistakes that the Russians had their first setball. Dal Zotto reacted too late. The Brazilians only managed to transfer the game to the balance sheet, which did not last long. Yakovlev's elegant serve did not allow the Brazilians to get ready to attack, and Kurkaev's attempt by Lucarelli alone was covered. The Russian national team won the third set with a score of 26:24 and took the lead in the match.

Alas, both heroes of the previous game did not start the next one well.

Their mistakes allowed the Brazilians to seize a small advantage, which they themselves and the players of the starting lineup had to play back.

Mikhailov especially tried - before he showed the greatest performance in the tournament in the game with Argentina, in which he scored 17 points, but after the fourth game with the Brazilians, the diagonal was able to go to the third dozen.

Pavel Pankov's exit to serve allowed the story with a score of 18:15, but the Brazilians showed character and restored parity.

Podlesnykh was also mistaken, so the Russians again had to return to the role of catch-ups.

Volkov's exit did not have the necessary effect, but Mikhailov remained on the site, who beat so accurately on the edge of the site that even the judges did not immediately notice it - only the repetition helped to understand the episode.

But the Brazilians failed to seek a review of the referee's decisions. When the score was 22:22, a key episode of the match took place. Wallace shot into the block, and the ball flew into touch. But it turned out that the ball flew perfectly between Kluka's hands and did not touch them. This finally knocked down the opponents, and the Russians brought the game to victory. Nine years later, they will again fight for the gold of the Olympic Games, and the opponent will be determined in the match between Argentina and France. In the group stage, Sammelvuo's charges met with both teams and beat the South Americans, but lost to the Europeans.