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Rio de Janeiro • Given a chance, they roared, and when the jubilant Brazilian fans stopped roaring, they danced. And when they stopped dancing, they chanted. They had no reason to stop partying very late before Thursday's nightcap.
That is, of course, until a struggling U.S. team staring an 0-3 start right in the face here at these 2016 Olympic Games silenced the crowd inside a frenzied, full-to-the-gills Marcanãzinho arena. The youthful Americans - eight first-time Olympians on the 12-man roster - stunned No. 1-seeded Brazil 3-1 (25-20, 25-23, 20-25, 25-20) in what eventually became early Friday morning to keep hopes of advancing to the quarterfinal round very much alive.
That lost swagger has been found. So much so that former BYU All-American Taylor Sander managed to faze out the raucous home crowd for the one hour and 54 minutes it took to shock the arena painted yellow and green.
"We were in the zone, and when you're in the zone, you don't really notice that kind of stuff," Sander said, who finished with seven kills, three blocks and two aces.
Winners of just one set in its first two matches in Rio, the U.S. no longer find itself at the bottom of Pool A. The top four nations in each pool advance to the knockout round, and the Americans (1-2) are currently looking up at Italy (3-0), Brazil (2-1) France (2-1) and Canada (1-2). Only Mexico sits in the cellar at 0-3.
Losses to Canada and Italy brought with it needed intervention. Some wake-up call. Sander said the players called on one another to hash out the struggles ahead of a match of this magnitude. "We had a lot of tough talks with our team," he said.
The message? "Go work." Libero Erik Shoji acknowledged that the 0-2 start wasn't indicative of what this group was capable of on the world's stage.
"We're a close team and we're fighting together," he said. "It's just about a learning process. We learned from those first two matches."
Yeah, apparently they did. Paced by a breakout game from Sander and Matt Anderson, who led all players with a game-high 24 points, the U.S. went to work.
Desperately trying to avoid a decisive fifth set, the U.S. took an early lead in the fourth. And the Americans threw caution to the wind to keep their knockout stage hopes alive. Shoji dove head first for a wayward ball, coming into contact with a cameraman seated near the U.S. bench to keep a rally alive. Shoji's no-look, one-handed hit allowed Sander to come up with a solo block at the net.
"I could barely breath at the end of that," Sander said. "It's fun. When you're competing at the highest level and playing like that, it's really cool. I think there was a lot of those moments tonight."
Sander later pushed the U.S. to the win late in the set, scoring back-to-back points with a kill that preceded an ace to put his team up 22-17 before the U.S. polished off a signature win.
While the U.S. fell behind 22-21 to Brazil late in the second set, the Americans closed on a 4-0 run, highlighted by a block by Sander and teammate Max Holt to keep the Brazilians from taking a two-point lead late. Instead, the block that ended a rally brought the U.S. even. Sander stayed big at the net. The 24-year-old from Huntington Beach, Calif., stood tall to block another kill attempt by Brazil to put the U.S. up 23-22.
Micah Christensen followed with an ace, and on set point, Aaron Russell slammed a spike down the center of the Brazilian defense to secure an early 2-0 lead.
The Americans won just their second set of these Olympics in the opener against the hosts, 25-20. The mistakes of the opening sweep against Canada were immediately cleaned up. In the set victory, the U.S. had just four errors. Brazil fell behind by as much as six late, and didn't recover.
When Sander helped extend the lead minutes into the match, it was evident the early jitters of his Olympic debut against Canada were long gone. The former Cougar drilled a big spike down the middle of the court and on the next serve, delivered an ace that was initially ruled out, but overturned on a challenge.
"Taylor tends to do that," Shoji said. "Sometimes he goes down a little bit and doesn't play his best, but in big moments, he's come up huge for us in the past. He's young, he's still learning and I think his best volleyball's yet to come."
It wasn't just Sander who had a different look in the wee hours of the Friday morning. The Americans, searching for itself here in Rio, discovered what they were in search for. And against the No. 1-ranked Brazilians, amid a feverish crowd it eventually quieted, no less.
"That's what we want," Sander said. "Man, it's awesome to beat that team in front of their home crowd. It's what we're here for. We're here to compete against the best teams, and we did it. We took it to them."
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
Storylines
• Team USA def. Brazil 3-1 (25-20, 25-23, 20-25, 25-20)
• Matt Anderson lead all players with 24 points in the U.S. win
• Former BYU star Taylor Sander had seven kills, three blocks and two aces
• The U.S. move on to face 2-1 France at 2:05 p.m. MDT Saturday