Alison and Álvaro Filho lose are eliminated

Nothing went right for Brazilian beach volleyball in the Tokyo-2020 Olympics. On a journey of eliminations, men and women return home with no medals on their chests. On the night of Tuesday (3), beginning of Wednesday in Japan, the duo Alison and Álvaro Filho were defeated by Plavins and Tocs, from Latvia, and said goodbye to the competition in the quarterfinals. With partials of 16/21 and 19/21, the capixaba and the paraibano were unable to play well, made many mistakes and were overcome by 2 sets to 0.

The zero in the medal counter had never appeared to Brazil in the Olympic Games. The country has always been represented among the top three in beach volleyball since Atlanta, in 1996, when the sport was included in the Olympic program. With the eliminations of Ana Patricia and Rebecca and Agatha and Duda in Tokyo, it will be the first time that the country will not have a female medalist duo since the Beijing Games, in 2008.

In the first set the Brazilians managed to balance the set at the beginning and even play well after the tenth point. But from a sequence of mistakes, lack of quality of attack and not being able to decipher the opposing plays, Alison and Álvaro were dominated and could not react, with Latvia closing in 21 to 16.

New try

In the second stage, the Brazilians continued to repeat the mistakes of the first and were unable to meet on the court. With animosity raging, Brazilians even argued, trying to find the best way to stop Plavins e Tocs, who could make everything work with great attacks and serves. But nothing went right for the Brazilians and the Latvians managed to finish 21 to 19 and eliminate Brazil.

“In the first set we were the same, always ahead, we had the opportunity to make 9/12 and we ended up missing. Pure concentration. It’s hot on both sides. I wasn’t able to concentrate on the ball, I was entering before , so much so that I made a lot of attacking mistakes. It’s a game of details. I commented on the bench, when we asked for time, that they didn’t make a mistake and they were just letting us make mistakes”, Alison commented to Sportv.

“We tried to come up with a strategy, but the defensive system didn’t work. Even experienced teams like ours are sometimes surprised. We did our best, but it wasn’t a good day,” he added.

Lack of investment

With today’s result, no pair of volleyball Brazilian beach club managed to reach the finals and win medals. Evandro and Bruno Schmidt were eliminated in the round of 16 by the same Latvian duo. In the feminine, Aghata and Duda were surpassed by the Germans Laura Ludwig and Margareta Kozuch and Ana Patrícia and Rebecca by the Swiss Vergé-Dépré and Heidrich.

According to Alison Cerutti, gold in Rio de Janeiro and silver in London, the Brazilian confederation needs to open its eyes and give more encouragement and support to athletes. Without that, for him, the country will be more and more behind in the modality.

Sometimes people at home will see two teams from LAT (Lithuania) in the semifinals, male and female, they will think it’s a surprise or something out of this world, but it’s not. The truth is that the world is investing in beach volleyball and we are getting stuck. This is not an outburst. It has to improve, it has to invest more; the confederation has to invest more and look with good eyes,” highlighted Alison.

“Really, wait for Ricardo and Emmanuel and now Alison and Alvaro, will be left behind. Congratulations to the world that is investing in this. What we have to do now is return home and to our family; our journey does not erase anything and neither does the that this boy (Álvaro) did for me,” he concluded.

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