Brazil is the Best on the Beach - For Now
The official start of the FIVB World Tour season is almost two and a half months down the road, but that didn’t stop the action this weekend in Rio De Janeiro. This weekend marked the first international challenge series match pitting Brazil against the US.
The set up for this match actually began last fall, with Todd Rogers securing a spot on the tour by winning God of the Beach in Las Vegas in September. Rogers picked big Phil Dalhausser as his partner to keep together the team that ran rampant and ended up tops on the AVP tour in ‘06.
Then last week Fabio Magalhaes won the King of the Beach in Brazil and selected Marcio Araujo as his partner…
The stage was set, this would be the fifth meeting between the two teams, the Brazilians were victorious in the first three matches while the US cleaned up with a win in the final meeting of last year in Acapulco.
The Brazilians just proved to be too much for the AVP tour champions, dominating the first game 21-15, and though Rogers and Dalhausser stepped up their play in the second game keeping the score close, they couldn’t manage to force a tie break, the second game ending in a 23-21 score.
Magalhaes and Araujo are coming off an incredible ‘06 season where they had a record of 72-19 and they don’t seem to have skipped a beat coming into ‘07. This is not, however the last time they will face the Americans in FIVB play this year and you can bet Rogers and Dalhausser will have revenge on their minds come the next meeting.
Rogers has been the defensive player of the year in the AVP for the last three years, Dalhausser was selected last years offensive player of the year and he led the AVP in blocks with more than 400. When they are on their game they are a very scary team. I look for them to do a little more studying on this exciting Brazilian team and come back with a win in their next meeting, after all they’ve got almost three months to figure Magalhaes and Araujo out.
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