Alexander Brouwer & Robert Meeuwsen had the perfect start in Rosarito, Mexico and control their destiny in Pool B. The Elite 16 format put them in a pool with Olympic gold medalists Anders Mol and Christian Sorum, Italian 2016 Olympic silver medalist Paolo Nicolai and his new defender Samuele Cottafava and the top American team Tri Bourne & Trevor Crabb. Of course Brouwer & Meeuwsen also hold an Olympic medal and were World Champions in 2013, so they weren’t intimidated by any of those teams. This is exactly what we were looking forward to in this new format, great teams facing off in pool play.
After starting the tournament winning an epic three set battle against Italy 2-1 (16-21, 21-11, 16-14), The Bash Brothers took down the Norwegians in two convincing sets 21-17, 21-16. The powerful Dutchies can side out with anyone but their desire to crush every ball usually leads to a slew of Mol blocks. This time they effectively hit off his hands and played a bit of keep away from Sorum with well placed shots. They did their scoring early in both sets jumping out to a 6-2 lead in the first set and a 6-1 in the second. The recipe for success against the Vikings in 2021 was to target Mol with the serve, but in those runs it was Sorum who got most of the pressure. A few uncharacteristic errors and Brouwer’s ability to make defensive plays paired with Brouwer’s blocking powered their huge leads. From there they played a clean sideout game and never let Mol and Sorum close enough to cause nerves.
Brouwer and Meeuwsen finish off pool play today agains the Americans who lost their opener to Norway but beat the Italians in their second match. A win for The Netherlands would ensure they top the pool, but a loss opens up all kinds of tie break scenarios and could even see them eliminated before the quarterfinals. So they have to keep playing just was well in their final match.
Photo by Volleyball World