MATCH INFO

Kagoshima, Japan, November 21, 2011 - In a battle of two familiar foes, the top-ranked Brazilians managed to pick up their second win in as many days against the Americans. Coach Rezende now looks ahead to Italy, who picked up a win against Egypt in the morning match.

Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende: First of all, it’s always tough when we play matches against the USA. This year we played five times; this is number six. We learned a lot playing against them. In our service, we wanted to be more aggressive like them, always consistent — they always put pressure on us. It worked okay today, as coach Knipe says, maybe we could control a little better. Maybe that was the difference in the match - we controlled our attack but serving was the key point in this match.

On facing Italy tomorrow: We’ll start studying them from now. There are no special expectations; they’re a great team and that’s it. [So there’s] respect, and they will serve hard and we’ll try to give them some pressure too.

Brazil captain Gilberto Godoy Filho (Giba): It’s always very difficult to play the USA because they play so well. This year we had many matches, so our teams know each other well. In the first and second sets our serving was good. In the third, Clay [Stanley] and Anderson had good serving. In the fourth set both teams had strong serving, but the Brazilian team could control a little better. We had good blocking in this match. And now we have to rest and think about the match tomorrow.

On Italy: We need to study Italy a bit and see some video. Tomorrow is the next “final” for us.

USA coach Alan Knipe: First of all I’d like to say that this was a well played match by Brazil. This game was very much determined by service and reception. Brazil served well, and caused problems in the first two sets. We got something going in third and in the beginning of the fourth set, but ultimately we needed to pass the ball better. As aggressive as Brazil was tonight, we needed to be able to manage those situations where we don’t have good passing. It’s not the match we wanted to play. We don’t have time to worry, but we just need to move on, watch video, and make as many changes as we can to how we approach the match. But congratulations to Brazil, they played well.

Are there aspects they will work on to improve on today for the Russia match tomorrow? Well not really, no. The answer for us is to handle our side of net - watch video and present some things that we need to do better to our players. I have faith in their resiliency to come back and play better.

USA captain Clayton Stanley: Congratulations to the Brazil team. I wish them the best of luck in their next game. As far as this game, I thought we came out throughout the whole match a little nervous, with too much energy, and maybe we lost focus. They kept us pressure from the service line, and throughout the match I found myself struggling offensively also. We had a nice rhythm in the third getting them in trouble from the service line. But they made defensive plays. we could have played better as team covering hitters. I think that’s about it.

I think that spiking is a rhythm technique and I wasn’t in a rhythm with either of my setters. With serving you have total control. I need to go back and look at video, talk to our setters and try to find the problem before tomorrows match.