In some ways, a bronze medal match has more pressure than the gold medal contest.
No matter what happens in the gold medal volleyball match, both teams go home with a medal. In the bronze medal match, only one team leaves with hardware while the other boards a flight out of Rio empty-handed.
There’s also the psychological factor.
Both teams playing in the bronze medal match were one win away from playing for a gold medal and instead have to shift gears and worry about getting over the disappointment and coming back to perform at a high level.
That’s the task at hand for the U.S. men’s volleyball team, which has had to endure the same disappointment fellow American volleyball teams have in Rio.
Both the Kerri Walsh Jennings-April Ross beach duo and the women’s indoor team had expectations of playing in the gold medal match only to suffer a loss in the semifinals and have to rebound to salvage a bronze.
As has been well-documented by now, the USA men got out to a rough start in the Rio Olympics, losing the first two matches in the preliminary round before ripping off a 4-0 run that included taking down the top-ranked team in the world (Brazil) in front of its home crowd in the prelims and then the No. 2 team (Poland) in a quarterfinals sweep.
But the story of the U.S. men’s tournament right now is their inability to beat Italy, which might be playing the best volleyball of any team in Rio.
Italy beat the U.S. in four sets in prelims and then in five sets in the semifinals on Thursday and now will play for the gold against host Brazil Sunday afternoon.
But first, Team USA will take on Russia in the bronze medal contest at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The two men’s medal matches are rematches from the 2004 Athens Games, when Brazil beat Italy for gold and Russia beat the U.S. for bronze.
Russia was no match for the Brazil in front of a wild crowd in the semifinals Thursday, dropping all three sets to the hosts.