MEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL
LONDON OLYMPICS PREVIEW
2012 OLYMPICS MEN’S BEACH VOLLEYBALL
• Dates: July 28 to Aug. 9 • Stadium: Capacity 15,000 located in House Guards Parade, site of annual ceremonies of Trooping of the Colour.
• Defending gold medalists: Phil Dalhausser/Todd Rogers (USA)
• U.S. entries: Dalhausser/Rogers (1), either Sean Rosenthal/ Jake Gibb or Matt Fuerbringer/Nick Lucena (2).
• Bronze Medal match: Aug. 9, 7 p.m. (London time) • Gold Medal match: Aug. 9, 9 p.m. (London time) • Teams to watch: Julius Brink-Jonas Reckermann (Ger many), Reinder Nummerdor-Richard Schuil (The Nether lands), Alison Cerutti/Emanuel Rego (Brazil), Ricardo Santos- Pedro Cunha (Brazil).
• Number of teams: 24 • Format: Pool play, followed by 16-team single elimination bracket
• Note: Rogers and Dalhausser were seeded second at the 2008 Beijing Olympics behind China’s Pennggen Wu-Linyin Xu as the host team.
BIG PUSH: Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers understand podium protocol. Sean Rosenthal, above right, is an exciting defender. Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena did not give up the battle for an Olympic berth. (Photos: FIVB)
Dalhausser and Rogers missed the Mos- cow Grand Slam in June after a snafu with their visas, and they used the time for some domestic training in Santa Barbara, Calif., before a European road trip that would leave them abroad until after the Olympics. Rog- ers accompanied his daughter, Hannah, to a youth tournament in Pismo Beach the same Saturday as the rest of the men’s world beach powers were slugging it out in Russia. The stretch run leading up to the Olym- pics would include Grand Slam events in Gstaad, Switzerland (July 3-8), Berlin (July 11-15) and Klagenfurt, Austria (July 17-22). It meant SportsCenter withdrawal for
Dalhausser, a self-proclaimed sports nut. But it’s a worthwhile sacrifi ce. “This is what we have been training for,” he said. “I think we are a better team than we were four years ago, and there won’t be nearly as much pres-
sure. We want to win another gold medal, but we already have one. We aren’t going
to be putting so much pressure on ourselves that we don’t play our game.”
As is often the case, the pressure of get- ting to the Olympics can be greater than the actual two-week competition. Gibb-Rosentahl, a team that fi nished
fi fth in Beijing four years ago, held a 200- point lead over Fuerbringer-Lucena with one qualifying tournament remaining in Rome June 12-17. Both teams had fi nished as high as second on the FIVB Tour in 2012 and were playing great volleyball, according to Rogers.
“Phil and I are taking extra interest in 34 | VOLLEYBALLUSA • Digital Issue at
usavolleyball.org/mag
that race,” Rogers said. “All four guys are friends, and it’s been impressive the way they all have been playing so well.” Rosenthal-Gibb secured a small 200- point edge after fi nishing ninth in Prague (May 22-27) and fi fth in Moscow (June 7- 12). Fuerbringer-Lucena took 17th and ninth respectively in the same two tournaments. A strong fi nish in the Rome Grand Slam could erase the defi cit for Fuerbringer-Lu- cena, but they will likely have to fi nish two places ahead of their compatriots. “My focus is on playing the best we can,” Fuerbringer said. “You can’t get wrapped up in the points when you’re on the court.”
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