Vollyball at Earls Court London 2012, 29 July USA overcome tigerish Koreans Brazillians charm Turkey

The USA kicked off their bid to land a long-awaited Volleyball gold medal in front of a boisterous Earls Court sell-out crowd on the opening day of action at London 2012. After nine failed attempts to land the top prize, the US Volleyball Federation handed Hugh McCutcheon the USA men's title-winning coach from Beijing 2008 the role of making it a perfect 10 in London and a gripping win over Republic of Korea put them on the correct road. USA stormed into a two sets to love lead before the Koreans fought back with number 10 Kym Yk who scored 27 points on the night who was phenomenal at Spikes, Although given a scare by a spirited Korean fight back which saw them take the third set, the USA with some vicious firepower at the net in the shape of the highlytalented Destinee Hooker had enough resilience about them to get over the line. The crowd got on their side too, warming to the personable Hooker as she pierced the Korea defence with a string of winners, as well as the brilliant Jordan Larson who contributed some quite staggering work on the ground. Second match was a carnival atmosphere of the Brazilians and the fanatics support of the Turkish leading to one of the best atmospheres. Brazil started very strongly with their serves coming to the fore with Castro and Carvalho leading their way with spikes and Kills. Turkey however was the masters of their own downfall in the first set. Turks would steal a point from Brazil before coughing up possession by putting the ball in the net. It is often said that coaches or managers behaviour is mimicked by players. Tonights match up saw Turkeys coach visibly reacting to every point as if it had been lost deliberately whilst the Brazilian coach mannerisms bore someone who was cool calm and collected. 1st set won by Brazil 25-18. 2nd set was Turkeys, trading blows at the net with Brazil and by going toe to toe point wise, meant that Brazil never got away. Turkey and Brazil were being vociferous towards the match officials who ignored the protest of balls touching lines and double touches. Five successive points gave the Turks what they needed though Brazil tried to disrupt the flow with time outs subs and technical timeouts. Turks won the set 25-23. Brazil cantered through the third set with powerful serving; spikes and unbelievable gets to keep points alive, which wore on their netters as well as their servers. Brazil won this won 25 to 19. 4th set was a very tactical affair that saw both team mimic each other style to see who would blink first. Brazil blinked courteously of two mistakes putting the ball wide from sets and spikes virtuously from pressure at net. The fifth and deciding set was another tight affair which saw Brazil provable 17 12