Brazil coach Renan Dal Zotto: I’m very satisfied and pleased with the win today. It was an excellent game that could have gone either way. I think we were lucky in the tie-break but more effective in serving and that gave us the advantage. In the end, the final set came down to just two plays.
Brazil captain Bruno Rezende: It was a very close game because we know each other so well. USA are very strong, with great serving and power in attacking. They have some great attackers and a really good setter. The difference came down to a few meticulous plays. We had chances to win in the fourth set but weren’t able to capitalise on those as we made mistakes. But in the fifth set, we were able to play with intelligence and so were able to win.
Brazil player Lucas Saatkamp: It was a very fiercely contested game today. We’ve played each other many times, so we know each other very well. I think the decisive factor was service; when our serve was stable, we won sets and when their serve was good, they won. We’ve been focusing on our serve for a long time now so we can serve well when needed.
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Latest VideosFacebookTwitterInstagramMedia GuidesUSA coach John Speraw: I’m disappointed because I thought we played much better than we had earlier in the tournament. We had opportunities, particularly in the first set that we let get away. I was pleased to come back and take the fourth set, but there are just some elements of our system that aren’t where they need to be and as a result we lost too many scoring opportunities. We served well and passed well and our block is much improved after focusing on that in the summer. So, there were some positives but we’re disappointed that we couldn’t score a couple more points.
USA captain David Smith: Even though we didn’t come out on top, it was a very good volleyball match with both teams playing at a very high level. Brazil challenged us in so many ways. The margins are very small and the difference between winning and losing was just one or two points. We’re going to have to learn from today and come back stronger next time.