2008 Olympic Gold Medalists

2008 Olympic Gold Medalists
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Kristiansand, Norway

First match in Kristiansand we played the Under 19 or former U-19 World Champions from the Ukraine. Pretty good young team. Little bit small for the world tour but I can see why they won the U-19. Good ball control and didn't make many errors. We won in 2 games and in the second game I went up and blocked. It worked as we were tied with them and we scored 4 or 5 points over the course of the next 3 or 4 serves we had. They hit out and Phil scooped a couple of balls. Stuffed a guy in transition as well. In our second match we played Georgia. Tight first game that we came in strong mid-game through the end. The second game the big guy played great. Usually serve him but he was playing so well that we served the little guy and ended up winning the third game because of it.

We played Norway on Friday evening. Probably the loudest match and most attended match of the tourney. The fans are pretty close to the court and the speakers for the music ect... are right on the court so you can't hear a thing. Gave up trying to talk to Phil during that match. Just used hand signals. Won in 2 games though. Saturday we played Harley/Pedro in the winners semis and won in 2 games.

Sunday we played Marcio/Ricardo in the semis. As usual it was a gnarly 3 game battle. Seems like all of our matches against them are crazy that way. We won the first 21-18 and they the second by the same score. The second we went down in the beginning like 9-2 or something like that. Got it back to an 18-17 us serving switch but they scored a point and 2 sideouts for game. The third was back and forth. We were down 9-6 receiving but made a mini comeback to win 17-15. In the finals we played Harley/Pedro again. We were up the entire game. Started off strong in the first up 13-8 at the timeout. They came back behind Harley's serving to have a chance to tie it at 18 but Phil stuffed Harley after he had scooped me and we ended that game with 2 straight points. In the second we jumped out to a 9-2 lead and never looked back. Harley still had like 3 or 4 aces in the game but we were just up by to much.

Some notable finishes were the Kiwis taking a 5th and upsetting Marcio/Ricardo and the Chinese guys in back to back games. Good on them. Also, Nick and Matt took a 7th. Lost to Pedro/Harley and the a tough one to Marcio/Ricardo 15-13 in the third. Nick retweaked his leg in that match unfortunately and he was visibly struggling to jump and move.

Really nice town. Similar to Santa Barbara or maybe Santa Cruz. Kind of touristy downtown area and a nice harbor. As always the people are very nice here in Norway and the scenery is really beautiful. I love the rock formations and stuff here from all the iceberg/glacial stuff that happened ages ago. All in all a good time.

6 comments:

UmassJSP said...

Todd-
As always thanks for the update. Now that the AVP is on hiatus I need to start learning the teams, names and personalities on the FIVB circuit. Having been on vacation 2 of the last 5 weeks I am catching up on a lot of stuff and I will watch some of the FIVB matches on the NBC Universal site. I am addicted to Mad Men and Friday Night Lights so I have caught up on those on the DVR. Man vs Food is another staple for TV viewing as my girls like watching that guy gorge with me. As I have mentioned before the vintage AVP matches ESPN have been showing this Summer have brought back lots of good memories.

Not sure what you think of the FIVB DJ blasting tunes as soon as every ball hits the sand but I find it distracting. The guy had quite a playlist in Norway...some Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Lady Gaga. Some of those Norweigian cheerleaders were hot but a few of them looked like I could run for 1000 yards in the NFL with them blocking for me.

Yes enjoy the beer and champagne from your Norway mug/horn/cornucopia while watching the NFL. This might be the last year for football as a strike is looming for 2011. Those gifts are nice additions to a trophy room. Good luck in Finland this weekend. The sauna action must be awesome and you and Phil must be picking up some of the lingo. But there is NO place like home....we are ALL with you guys and damn proud to have you representing the USA......Scott

Andrew said...

Finally, USA Today had an article about Todd and Phil's tremendous season.

Here is a link: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2010-08-17-rogers-dalhausser-fivb-avp_N.htm

Hopefully, some investers read the piece and recognize an opportunity to help support beach volleyball.

UmassJSP said...

Dain Blanton tweeted a link to a newspaper story about Kent Steffes' investment group that offered to save the AVP this season but the deal was rejected. Mike Dodd was quoted as saying "bottom feeders" came in at the last hour which must be referring to the Steffes offer. Is Dodd or the AVP CEO entitleled to call ANYONE bottom feeders in their postion?? Deciding to deep six the remaining schedule and possibly saving their own jobs must have been the issue but the players and fans suffer. Here is another good article:
http://www.easyreadernews.com/2010/08/sports-category/business

Arsenal12 said...

Hey Todd,

As you continue to dominant internationally, the fans of the AVP are blowing up on FB about Manhattan and the old school rules. Jake (via the Net Live) and Kerri (via the press), have put thier reasons out there for not playing. So I thought I was just ask. Keep working hard my friend.

UmassJSP said...

Arsenal-
On April Ross Twitter (AprilRossAVP)she says AVP players should bring their own nets and set up their own "protest" tourney at MB with FIVB rules. She says MB tourney is being run by "old men" that want the tournament run with sideout and regulation court. So it seems that the players are really disgusted with the proposal at MB...I didnt think they would be so upset.

Todd Rogers said...

Hope I answered your questions in my latest post.

Todd