Olympic Roundup & Standings: Saturday 08.16

Another Round of updates from Beijing.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT A GREAT ARTICLE HERE ON THE BULLET: SPIKING THE COMPETITION by SHAWN CAMILLERI

(Also available below this post)

Let’s do the roundup:

BASEBALL: It’s a victory for TEAM USA! The R,W, and B beat our neighbors to the North 5-4 last night. Brian Barden went 2-for-5 with a double and a homerun. The win brings the USA into the mix in the standings again.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB	Tiebreaker
Cuba	4	0	17	12	1.000	-	-
South Korea	3	0	14	10	1.000	½	-
United States	2	2	23	17	.500	2	-
Japan	2	2	17	10	.500	2	-
China	1	2	12	23	.333	2½	-
Canada	1	3	20	13	.250	3	-
Chinese Taipei	1	3	13	15	.250	3	-
Netherlands	1	3	6	22	.250	3	-

Up Next for TEAM USA is China very early Monday Morning.

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BASKETBALL: Team USA cannot be beat in these Olympics it seems. Both the Women and Men’s teams destroying Spain. The Boys beat the current world champions, 119-82. They will take the #1 seed into the knockout round no matter how they far against Germany on Monday

Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	Avg	PD	Pts
USA	4	4	0	1.000	409	297	1.377	+112	8
Spain	4	3	1	.750	320	319	1.003	+1	7
Greece	4	2	2	.500	324	298	1.087	+26	6
China	4	2	2	.500	289	309	0.935	-20	6
Germany	4	1	3	.250	273	284	0.961	-11	5
Angola	4	0	4	.000	271	379	0.715	-108	4

Tournament knockout bracket to be completed by Monday. The U.S. Women to take on New Zealand early tomorrow. .

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BEACH VOLLEYBALL:

The Men’s Round of 16 match results are in. Rogers/Delhausser(#1 seed) began the tourney against Switzerland. They won in three sets. The Gibbs/Rosenthal duo easily dispatched Spain in 2 Sets. So NOW the tournament bracket.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold Medal Game

Klemperer – Koreng (GER)

Rogers – Dalhausser (USA)

Nummerdor – Schuil (NED)

Geor – Gia (GEO)

Ricardo – Emanuel (BRA)

Gibb – Rosenthal (USA)

Bronze Medal Game

M. Araujo – Fabio Luiz (BRA)

Gosch – Horst (AUT)

TEAM 1 is scheduled at 7 PM tomorrow night.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL – WOMEN: The Two team’s Quarterfinal matches are set for later tonight and early tomorrow morning. Both teams will look to advance to the Semifinals. See the Bracket below.

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FOOTBALL: The big game between USA and JAPAN in the Women’s Semifinal will go off tomorrow at 5:00am PST. As mentioned TEAM USA already beat Japan in the tournament. The win could set up a gold medal match with Brazil or Germany.

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FIELD HOCKEY: The U.S and New Zealand was a crucial match for Team USA as they need a full six points to even have potential into the Medal round. They got the effort they needed. USA destroys New Zealand 4-1. USA’s Keli Smith scores two goals in the win: 1 Field Goal and one off a Penalty Corner.

Updated Standings

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Germany	9	4	3	0	1	11	8	+3
Argentina	8	4	2	2	0	10	5	+5
Great Britain	7	4	2	1	1	7	9	−2
USA	5	4	1	2	1	9	8	+1
Japan	4	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1
New Zealand	0	4	0	0	4	4	10	−6

Now, the United States plays England, so if they win outright they would leapfrog the Brits. They would need a big victory over GB and a loss by Argentina who wraps up their play against Argentina. It doesn’t look good, but if New Zealand can beat Argentina 1-0. The US would only need to beat England by 5. HA!

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SOFTBALL: The US team gets another Mercy Rule win. They beat up on Chinese Taipai 7-0 in 5 innings late last night. Jennie Finch on the Bump for TEAM USA, Jessica Mendoza hits a homerun in the 3rd inning, part of a 5-run 3rd for USA.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB
United States	5	0	36	1	1.000	-
Japan	4	1	12	11	.800	1
Australia	3	2	17	9	.600	2
Canada	3	2	17	13	.600	2
China	2	3	18	10	.400	3
Venezuela	2	3	11	21	.400	3
Chinese Taipei	1	4	6	18	.200	4
Netherlands	0	5	4	38	.000	5

USA has clinched a spot in the Semi-finals. The Softball page playoff system is different but an interesting twist in this tournament. (though, it really won’t affect the USA too much if they win out.)

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GYM VOLLEYBALL:

MEN: Check out Shawn’s Article Below as he discusses the great journey of the US Men’s Volleyball team. The Men swept China in dominating fashion and now have a match with japan to wrap up round robin play. The US Men are already into the knockout round by way of their 4-0 record.

Rk	Team	Points	Played	Won	Lost	PW	PL	Ratio	SW	SL	Ratio
1	United States	8	4	4	0	385	320	1.203	12	4	3.000
2	Italy	7	4	3	1	332	297	1.117	10	4	2.500
3	Bulgaria	6	4	2	2	348	358	0.972	7	8	0.875
4	China	6	4	2	2	341	385	0.886	7	10	0.700
5	Venezuela	5	4	1	3	339	353	0.960	7	9	0.778
6	Japan	4	4	0	4	341	373	0.914	4	12	0.333

Shouldn’t be a problem for the men who have secured a top seed in the tournament.

WOMEN: The women are 3-1 in their respective pool and will qualify for the knockout round, just maybe not as dominating as the men. They wrap up their round-robin with Poland.

Rk	Team	Points	Played	Won	Lost	PW	PL	Ratio	SW	SL	Ratio
1	Cuba	8	4	4	0	351	312	1.125	12	3	4.000
2	United States	7	4	3	1	357	338	1.056	9	7	1.286
3	China	6	4	2	2	391	341	1.147	10	7	1.43
4	Japan	6	4	2	2	337	313	1.077	7	8	.875
5	Poland	5	4	1	3	338	343	0.985	7	9	0.778
6	Venezuela	4	4	0	4	203	320	0.649	1	12	0.008

-Dan.

Spiking the Competition!!!

yahoo images

With Micheal Phelps dominating the Olympics and headlines since the start of the Beijing games, many other great story lines are being lost in his wash.

Take the U.S. Men’s Volleyball team. Undoubtedly the saddest story to come out of this years games was the attack on the in-laws of Men’s Volleyball Coach Hugh McCutcheon, Todd and Barbara Bachman. Todd Bachman was killed during the attack and Barbara was stabbed but is now in a Minnesota hospital in fair condition after undergoing eight hours of surgery in Beijing.

Coach McCutcheon missed the first three games of these Olympics to be by his family’s side during this time, something even the biggest sport fan can appreciate. During the three-game span his team had gone undefeated winning each match in dominating fashion. McCutcheon was back on the sideline Saturday morning to see his boys take on host team China in a sold out Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium.

When introduced, the pockets of American fans spread out throughout the crowd gave McCutcheon a standing ovation. Despite the sentimental reunion, many volleyball experts wondered if the reunification of coach and team would hurt the play of the U.S. team. Not even picked to be a serious medal contender, many believed the spectacular play of the American team to be rooted from a “win one for the gipper” mentality the team had picked up since the tragedy of their coach (the incident happened the first day of the games).

The Americans showed no signs of a reunion hangover as they easily dispatched their opponents in a convincing sweep 25-22, 25-12, 25-18. During the match the U.S. team wrote “TB” and “BB” on their sneakers in honor of there coach’s family.

After the match, and many hugs and high-fives, Coach Mccutcheon said it was his mother-in-law who was the biggest proponent that he stay in Beijing saying “She was extremely encouraging. She was adamant that I stay. She assured me she’s going to be good.”

The U.S. team has clinched their way into the Quarterfinals of the Olympic games but still have one more preliminary game against Japan on Monday, August 18th.

-Shawn.