PARIS — All things considered — and there was a lot to consider — the USA men will take it.
And then some.
In a match eerily similar to the one their USA women counterparts lost on Monday, the Americans came away with a 25-21, 25-17, 17-25, 20-25, 15-11 victory Tuesday over Germany and clinched a spot in the Paris Olympics quarterfinals.
Which, in the grand scheme of things, is all that matters, especially for a team that remembers all too well three years ago in Tokyo. That’s when the USA beat France in its first match and then failed to get out of pool play, and France went on to win gold.
In this case, after sweeping Argentina on Saturday and holding off the Germans when it mattered most, that whooshing sound coming out of Arena Paris Sud 1 was a deep exhale mixed in with exuberance.
“Coming back in the fifth … It was huge,” veteran opposite Matt Anderson said. “It was for us to have that test in the Olympics and get a little more insight into what it’s like to win an Olympic game under pressure.”
The USA finishes Pool C play Friday against Japan with an eye on bettering its seed in the quarterfinals. Japan plays Argentina on Wednesday.
The fifth set was a roller-coaster ride. Germany went ahead 5-4 and coach John Speraw called time and his team responded in a huge way. Libero Erik Shoji came up with a pass off off a serve by Gyorgy Grozer measured at 121 kilometers per hour, Micah Christenson made an off-balance set, and Anderson delivered the kill.
That brought Max Holt, whom coach John Speraw calls “Sunshine,” to the service line and the middle buried an ace. And then he did it again, painting the right sideline near the corner and suddenly it was 7-5 USA. It was 8-5 on Taylor Averill’s stuff block of Mortiz Karlitzek, which forced Germany into a timeout.
It didn’t help, because Aaron Russell came flying out of the back row for a kill and then did it again to make it 10-5.
“I was telling Micah they’re not looking at me, they’re watching our middles or the pins and I told him to look for me and he trusted me in that situation and I’m happy he gave me a good situation to spike,” Russell said.
Germany used its final timeout and finally broke Holt’s service run with a kill by Karlitzek.
“We need a little something and I happened to be that guy today,” Holt…
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