DieBruderschaft.com

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Alison and Bruno stood on the top step of the Olympic podium, holding back tears as the booming voices of the Carioca singing the Brazilian national anthem rose above the waves crashing against Copacabana beach.In front of our people. In the best spot for this sport, Bruno said after the reigning world champions beat Italy in straight sets in the beach volleyball gold medal match on Thursday night. This is a magical feeling.In a temporary stadium erected on the sports spiritual home, during a steady rain that only served to help the 6-foot-8 Alison jump even higher, the Brazilians rallied from deficits in both sets to beat Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai 21-19, 21-17.The victory sparked a lively -- but somewhat drenched -- party one night after losses in the womens bronze- and gold-medal matches left the hosts with just two total medals at the Rio Games in a sport they love and were expected to dominate.Its like a dream realized. I cant believe it, said Alison, who lost in the gold medal match in London. Its amazing. I dont have the words.The Netherlands beat Russia earlier Thursday in a bronze-medal match that was subdued after two weeks of singing and samba dancing in the 12,000-seat venue. But when the time came for the main event, the stands filled and the anticipation built.Italy opened a 5-1 lead but the hosts came back to win the first set. In the second, Brazil trailed by three before scoring 11 of the next 15 points to take a 19-15 lead.Alison delivered his sixth block on the game-winner, knocking it off Lupo for what the referee ruled was a double-touch. The Italians questioned the call, but by the time the score hit the scoreboard the Brazilian athletes were already in the stands.We tried everything to win the game, Nicolai said. They were the best, for sure.Some fans covered their heads with the ever-present green and yellow flags in an attempt to stay dry. Others wore ponchos and waved their flags and celebrate each point scored by the locals.As he has throughout the tournament, Alison egged on the crowd, pointing to his ear to encourage fans to yell louder after the Brazilians rallied from the early deficit.The victory helped salvage what had been a bit of a disappointment for the Brazilian beach volleyball teams, who stepped onto their home sand with the top two womens seeds and two of the top four on the mens side.Pedro and Evandro failed to make it out of the round of 16, and the top-seeded womens teams collected only a silver medal.Even with Italys loss, it was cause for celebration in Europe.No European country had ever won a medal in womens beach volleyball -- or even reached the final four -- before Germany beat one Brazilian team in the semifinal and another in the championship to claim the gold.With the Dutch bronze and Italian silver on the mens side, the three medals were an Olympic high for the continent. Heading into the Rio Games, the sport had been dominated by Brazilians and Americans, who combined to win 20 of a possible 30 medals.I dont think we have to talk about it being the Brazilians and the Americans anymore, said Alexander Brouwer after he joined with Robert Meeuwsen to win 23-21, 22-20 and earn the Netherlands first beach medal.Of course, its where the sport was invented, he said. But if you talk about it now, we are on an even level. Air Jordan 1 Uk . -- About a third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at . Air Jordan 1 Uk Clearance . Two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 15 race in an area packed with fans cheering the passing runners. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured, including at least 16 who lost limbs. http://www.airjordan1uk.com/ . He says so-called TRT is only one problem and he wants to go even further than the ban. "Its about time," St-Pierre told reporters at a promotional event in Montreal on Friday. "I think its a good thing. Air Jordan 1 Uk Sale . With their top three point guards and Kobe Bryant all sidelined by injury, the Lakers signed Marshall out of the D-League on Friday before their home game against Minnesota. Wholesale Air Jordan 1 . Tuesdays surgery at Atlantas Piedmont Hospital was performed by Dr. Xavier Duralde and Hawks team physician Dr. Michael Bernot. As the inaugural season of ELeague begins to wrap up, lets run down the semifinalists: mousesports, a team thats already made it further than ever before in a large tournament, and Virtus.pro, a team that won a 2014 major and whose players have won more premier tournaments in Counter-Strike dating back to 2006 than you can count on one hand.And yet, its still unclear which team is favored in the matchup.mousesportsDespite being a German team with three players from the organizations home country, mousesportss best player, Nikola NiKo Kovac, is Bosnian, and second-star Chris chrisJ de Jong hails from the Netherlands. As such, the team communicates in English, which is a clear hindrance for non-native speakers calling out information in split seconds, particularly for young players such as NiKo, who come from a country where people are not often strong English speakers.In a way, mousesports does not fit the traditional mold of a team; it is as if it has an identity crisis it cannot solve. It lacks the tactical and structured approach of Natus Vincere, having parted ways with long-time in-game leader Fatih gob b Dayik in the beginning of the year. But mouz is far from the superteam that Fnatic is. NiKo is arguably the worlds best player right now, but chrisJ would not come close to anyones top 20 list, and it only gets worse from there. The more you think about it, the more heroic NiKos performance becomes, or the more confused you get.When it comes to the map pool, mousesports is again in trouble. It can be amazing on dust2 and cache, but has losing records for 2016 on both cobblestone and overpass. On both train and mirage, it is passable -- but only that -- because its inconsistency costs it games on both often. Compare mousesports to its Polish opponent, who can play six maps well, and you only add to the list of things for fans to worry about on Friday.Yet, superstars often decide games in sports, and the same applies here. NiKo is the best player in the series, and if he can deliver in a fashion similar to how he did in the previous two series at ELeague, mousesports has a chance. Both chrisJ and Johannes nex Maget are inconsistent but capable of putting up good halves. Finally, the teams newly minted coach and in-game leader Aleksandar kassad Trifunovic can surely work his magic outside of the server. But really, this series will depend on NiKo. Which begs the question: how many series can a 19-year-old win on his own?Virtus.proThe Polish team that won the second CS:GO major in March 2014 has the oldest roster in the game and will soon pass three years without a plaayer change.dddddddddddd But whereas personnel-wise it has been eerily consistent, just about everything else about its game has been revamped multiple times. Janusz Snax Pogorzelski became the teams clear star player in 2014 over Jaros?aw pasha Jarzabkowski, who has all but disappeared. Three players have led the team, with ex-member Jakub kuben Gurczynski now helping as a coach.And while the AWPs keep changing hands, multiple players might at any time pick it up. Very few things are obvious about this team: Snax is the superstar who does what he wants; Filip NEO Kubski is, for all intents and purposes, a primary sniper, yet the aforementioned star sometimes picks up the AWP over him; Wiktor TaZ Wojtas has seen his individual play reinvigorate at the age of 30, but then there are issues. Pasha, who was the face of the team, has gone from a starring role in the worlds best conversation in early 2014 to a problem, with the high peaks no longer visible. Meanwhile, the teams youngest player, Pawe? byali Bielinski, has not only stopped improving since showing heaps of promise in 2014, but has gotten worse. Against all odds, it was NEO who was the teams best player in their quarterfinal victory over NiP.Virtus.pros current map pool is not very impressive. Its cache and train are inconsistent, dust2 unreliable with few games played, and despite playing the map, nuke has not worked out. The team is very good on both cobblestone and mirage, but will not get to play both of those in this series. In all likelihood, the map veto will end up, give or take, even. With a versatile team and ability to improvise well in-game, that should be fine for the Polish side; after all, its known for showing up in big games when it matters most, and has a chip on its collective shoulder from this months major, having been the only team to take a map off of champions SK.And with all that considered, most -- by a long shot -- still favor Virtus.pro. The peak of its powers remains a level few can match, and fans worldwide expect the team to summon something close to it, simply due to the way it left Cologne at the hands of SK, who will not be in Atlanta. If the Polish team can either play NiKo to a tie, or force him off his game, this could be a landslide. Still, the inconsistency is there, leaving the front door open for an upset loss and another disappointing semi-final exit. As it is too close to call on merits, I must side with the more experienced team: Virtus.pro. ' ' '