Men's volleyball: U.S. beats Brazil to replay Beijing finale

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The men's volleyball final of Beijing Olympics was replayed on Thursday as the defending champions U.S. beat the current world No. 1 Brazil 3-1 again in London.

The Americans fought back after set one loss to win the match 23-25, 27-25, 25-19, 25-17. The two teams both showed off quality attacking skills, but the U.S. teams are proved more all-around with four more successful blocks and four more ace serves. At the fourth set, Brazil struggled to fight back and had its star player Gilberto Godoy Filho on court, but the efforts went in vain as their defense system fall apart.

American hitter Clayton Stanley, Beijing Games MVP, proved his value with 19 points, the highest of all players. Leandro Vissotto Neves took 15 points for Brazil.

"Both teams started hard and committed a few mistakes. We made mistakes in our transitions. From the second set, we passed better, better transitions and were better as the game went on," said American head coach Alan Knipe.

Brazil head coach Bernado Rezede attributed the loss to his team failure to cope with the rival's powerful service.

"When you're in the lead and you have a service as good as they have, it makes it easier for them. I think we needed to have a bit more patience and attitude," he said.

After the match, the unbeaten U.S. was qualified to the quarterfinals in advance, while Brazil, ranked the second of the group, still have chance to revenge the loss at the knockout stage.

In another two matches of Pool B, world's No.2 Russia made a solid step to the quarterfinals with an expected win over Tunisia 3-0, while desperate Germany, which was pushed to the edge after two losses, rallied to back to upset European champion Serbia in a five-set thriller, registering their first victory in London.

In Pool A, Bulgaria has kept its winning momentum to score their third win over Australia in straight sets.With the three victories, the Bulgarians marched into the knockout stage.

The world No. 3 Poland easy past Argentia 3-0 to take the second place of the group,while Italy crushed the last chance of Great Britain to move forward into the quarterfinals after beating the host 3-0.

The men's preliminaries will continue on Saturday, when the clash between the United States and Russia will be the highlight of the day.

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