2017-08-23 12:18:00 CEST
Wildcards trump the World Champs!
Wildcards shock Vienna heroes Evandro/Andre
Casey and Theo recorded a fine win over their Brazilian opponents in Hamburg
There was a massive shock in only the second game of the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone as recently crowned World Champions Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola were beaten by wildcards Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner.
In a brilliant three-set affair the Americans were in excellent form to get their tournament off to a flyer at the Rothenbaum.
And their 21-18, 16-21, 15-13 win sent a message out to the rest of the 11 men’s teams that Casey and Theo mean business in Hamburg.
“Every time we play we want to win – we’re athletes and we train for moments like this,” said a delighted Patterson afterwards.
“There’s pressure on every other team here because we’re the wildcards. We dream of winning tournaments but we want to show everyone that we didn’t just get the wildcard because we’re fun to watch but because we can play beach volleyball too.”
Patterson also believes that it was the perfect time to meet the Brazilians following their success in Austria two weeks ago.
“I understand where they are at,” he said. “It’s tough for them to come back and get fired up for this after their exciting win in Vienna. We made the good plays when we needed to.”
Theo added: “We knew they would be high on confidence following Vienna but we got the wildcard and there’s no pressure on us.”
Their victory made it the perfect start for the day for the USA after Dalhausser/Lucena won their opening match of the day.
Patterson and Brunner now face another medal-winning team from Vienna in their next match on the Red Bull Beach Arena at 5pm CET today against Russians Krasilnikov/Liamin. That’s a game you can watch live on BeachStream.
