Olympic Volleyball

On my second trip to London, I managed to score a ticket to Women's Volleyball at Earls Court.  The coolest thing about this event was that I would get to cheer for Team USA as they played Turkey.  The second match was Brazil versus Serbia.  In the finals, Brazil would go on to beat the USA for the gold.

Earls Court is a district of London within walking distance of our layover hotel so it was perfect because I wouldn't have to deal with public transport.  It was supposed to rain so I took my windbreaker, but it ended up being a nice day.

The venue was held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre, which opened in 1937.  It's a little long in the tooth and showing it's age, but they still did a nice job of hosting the volleyball venue.  The lobby area outside the playing court had all these huge statues of famous volleyball players.  This one was obviously from Russia (note her dour look).

I enjoyed a red wine split that was officially bottled for the 2012 games.  This Shiraz Tempranillo was quite tasty and went with my burrito quite nicely!  Of course I saved the bottle as a souvenir.

My ticket was not cheap, and was one of the higher tiered in price so I knew I had good a seat.  I thought I was in row 7, but actually, the rows started at 4, so I was in row 3 right on the end, down where the team sits!

The first match was between Turkey and Team USA.  The winning team needed three wins to advance.  The first game was kind of a nail biter because Turkey was playing rather aggressive.  But my USA gals came back with the power and really opened some whoop ass for the last two games.

Here is the team line up before the games started.  The young woman on the far right is Destinee Hooker.  She was a beast.  She lead the team in spikes and she was full of power! She was my favorite player on the team.

There were USA fans sitting in various parts of the stand.  These fans were the siblings of one of the players and went all out in the pride for Team USA!

There were also a lot Brazilian fans in the crowd for the Brazil versus Serbia.  They were pretty cool for the most part.

These fans were a bit over the top.  They was a Serbian couple sitting in front of them and these Brazilian fans kept taunting them and "spilling" beer on them.  Finally, someone from the security staff stepped in and asked them to leave.

The Brazilians triumphed over the Serbians in the end.  Their team is really was pretty good... and of course they would take the gold at the end of the games.