With the result, the USA are back in the Olympic semifinals after failing to break pool in Tokyo three years ago. This will be the seventh semifinal run in 13 appearances for the Americans, who returned home with medals in five of those occasions.
"We're drained, because playing Brazil always takes everything out of you," outside hitter TJ Defalco said. "I'm trying to take it as just another match because these are the quarterfinals and we didn't win a medal or anything yet. Having a lot of options on our bench was huge, especially against a team like Brazil, because they have that too. We've been having more faith in our blocking and defense and that is key in the way we play."
Brazil, on the other hand, will be out of the medal rounds in the Games for the first time since Sydney 2000 – their run of five consecutive semifinal appearances generated four medals.
Opposite Matt Anderson was the top American scorer in the match, producing 20 points (17 kills, three blocks), four more than outside hitter Defalco, who had 15 kills and one block. Middle blocker Max Holt, with 13 points, and outside hitter Aaron Russell, with 11, also got to double digits in scoring.
"I'm happy about the way we fought after we kind of gave up that second set," Holt commented. "We stayed very poised, came back and played like a new game. Everybody fought and we did what we needed to do. Our blocking was really great in the fourth set and all credit goes to our coaching staff as they made a ton of great calls against one of the best offensive teams in the world. Being able to slow them down like we did was huge. We've been on a growing path since the start of the summer and I feel like we're peaking at the right time."
