World Champions

It feels pretty good to be the “World Champions”. It has not really set in to be honest. Every once in awhile it kind of jumps out at me, particularly when I think of another sport and who the world champion is in that sport. It is very surreal right now.

When I last blogged it was Thursday night in Switzerland and we had just finished pool play. Here is the rest of the tourney from my perspective.

We played only one match again on Friday. In the first round of playoffs we played Maia/Brenha from Portugal. This team scares me in big tourneys as they play well. They played very well against us and gave us a very stiff test. We actually played really well against them. The little guy was working Phil over on his block. He has an insane arm and wrist and I am surprised Phil has any hair left under his armpits after being burned so much. We were able to win 18 and 18 but it was a battle the entire way. We were helped by a possibly bad call at 19-18 our lead in the second game. The little guy went low line and it hit the top of the net which then pushed against Phil’s arm. The ref called no touch by Phil and 4 contacts by the Portugues. They were seriously pissed as it was an easy cover for them. Instead of being tied at 19 all it was 20-18 our lead. Tough call no matter which way it goes.

On Saturday we started out at noon against the Austrian team of Doppler/Gartmayer. As I have said before, they are a very tough serving team. They never got it going though. They struggled from the get go and Phil was placing his serves really well. He wasn’t really bombing it, but placing it on the sideline or right up the middle. They also helped our cause by missing probably 50% of their serves and making a ton of errors. Phil had 1 block and I had about 2 digs so we really didn’t earn a lot of points as much as they gave us the points. The final scores were around 15 and 15.

In our third playoff game we took on the number 1 Chinese team of Wu/Xu who we affectionately have named Tiny and Big Pimp. I have no idea behind the nick names but they are funny. They are really getting good and they gave us everything we could handle. The first game we slowly forged a lead but right at the end we gave it all up due to two aces and a block by Tiny. We managed 2 sideouts at the end to win 21-19. In the second game we were behind most of the game by a point or two. At about 16-19 we sided out and then Phil served two really good serves to create points for us. We traded sideouts on the next two plays and then I served two float serves that they struggled with. On one the set was coming from way off the net and was a trap set that Phil stuffed. The final point was another bad pass and overset that Phil poked into the corner. Final game was 22-20. That ended play for us on Saturday and put us into the final four on Sunday.

On a side note, every year that I have been to Gstaad there is a Greek American couple who has taken the Americans out for dinner. This year was no exception. The dinner has always been on Saturday night and I have been ousted from the competition already. Therefore I have a couple of glasses of wine and enjoy a fantastic meal. This year I had to forego the couple of glasses of wine. Although I must admit, I did have ½ a glass of Dom Champagne and a ½ glass of the excellent Cabernet Sauvignon. The food was again fantastic. To start off we had an assortment of meats and cheeses. The main course was a cheese fondue and a beef fondue. The beef fondue is something I have never had nor even ever heard of. They give you a plate of thinly sliced high grade raw beef. You skewer the beef and put it into a small pot of what I would term beef broth. The beef broth is sitting over a little burner and it cooks your meat. You take it out and dip it one of a variety of sauces. Very good and it didn’t seem like a lot of food at the time but when I was done I was comfortably full. The dessert was recommended by Michael, our host, as being excellent. He was not wrong. It was a homemade pecan ice cream that was utterly delicious. Thank you very much Michael and Christina.

On Sunday we played Emanuel and Ricardo in the semis. Epic match that was a real joy to play in. The first game was tight until about midway when we pulled away. Ended up winning the game 21-16. The second game my passing broke down on float serves of all things. I struggled to sideout and made a couple of errors. They also made some very good digs and went to a 14-7 lead. Final score ended up being 21-13 Brasil. The third game was a great game. It was back and forth in the beginning. In the middle we went up 10-7 and had a chance for 11-7 but did not convert the point. They came back with a scoop and put away on a pokey by me and a pass into the net by Phil that we had to give them a free ball. All of a sudden it was 10-10. We switched sides and the next play Ricardo scooped Phil and put it away. A huge 5 point switch!! Phil sided out the next ball to make it 11 all. We traded sideouts and then scored a point to go up 13-12 on the side switch. The next play Phil blocked Emanuel straight down but out of bounds by about 6 inches. So close. Phil sided out the next ball and we had our first of 5 match points. Emanuel shot it down the line over Phil and out of my reach. I sided out with a cut shot. They sided out with a big angle bang. I sided out with a line shot. They sided out with another bang off of Phil. I sided out with a deep angle hit. Ricardo sided out on a pokey that Phil swatted but out of bounds on the other side of the court. Ricardo tried to go sharp angle on Phil and hit the ball just wide on the serve. Match point number 5 I scooped Emanuel’s angle bang back over the net. Ricardo took the ball and then Phil stuffed him straight down for the match, 19-17. Crowd was going nuts and Phil and I were very stoked to say the least.

In the final we played the Russians. The key was not to let the “Bazooka” go off from the service line. This guy hits the hardest serve I have ever tried to pass. Fortunately we are about 2000 meters above sea level and the air is thinner. He had only one ace on a well placed middle serve that was not really that fast. We jumped out to a lead pretty quickly in the first game and never looked back to win 21-16. In the second it was close in the beginning and then midway through we scored a bunch of points and ended up winning 21-14 for the big “W”.

All in all it was a great tourney for Phil and I. Really had a great time in Gstaad. How can you not when you are in a beautiful place and win the biggest tourney of the year. One day it will completely hit me that Phil and I are World Championships. Right now, I am just happy to have won a tourney and get that much closer to getting to the Beijing Olympics.