Brazilians Score Big Win Over Kiraly/Johnson

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira of Brazil, the top-rated team on the 1998 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, scored a convincing 15-3 win over the United States' Adam Johnson and Karch Kiraly here Thursday (July 23) in the featured men's match of the 1998 Goodwill Games at Wollman Rink.

Both teams entered the match unbeaten as Johnson and Kiraly rank as the top-rated team on the USA's domestic tour.  The Brazilians never trailed in the match as they moved from a 3-1 lead to 10-1 advantage to take commanding control of the match.

With the loss, Johnson and Kiraly fell into third-place in Group A despite being tied with Canadians John Child and Mark Heese.  Both teams are 1-1 in pool play, but Child and Heese have a plus-3 point differential with Kiraly and Johnson at minus-5.  Point differential is used as the first tie-breaker in case of two teams tying with the same record.

Child and Heese play the Brazilians at approximately 1:15 p.m. (EDT) Friday while Kiraly and Johnson face fellow Americans Ricci Luyties and Sinjin Smith at approximately 6:45 p.m.

Earlier Thursday evening, Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner of Australia overcame a 6-2 deficit by scoring eight-straight points to take control of the game to down Martin and Paul Laciga of Switzerland 15-13 in a Goodwill Games Group B match.

In Thursday's opening session, Martin Conde and Esteban Martinez of Argentina and Child and Heese posted wins.  Conde and Martinez lead Group B round-robin play with a 2-0 mark and has a plus-11 point differential heading into Friday's match 12 p.m. match with the Aussies, who are tied for second in the pool with Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide of Norway with 1-1 Group B marks.  Both second-place teams have a zero-point differential.

Thursday's afternoon session was delayed for 90 minutes due to rain after Conde and Martinez upset Kvalheim and Maaseide 16-14 in a 79-minute, 105-sideout match.  The Argentina tandem took an 11-9 lead 56 minutes into the match before Kvalheim and Maaseide, the defending Goodwill Games beach volleyball champions, rallied to take a 14-13 edge with 63 minutes gone in the match.  Conde and Martinez, who won an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event last month in Toronto, Canada, scored the final three points of the match with a pair of Conde kills sealing the Argentina tandems' 10th win in 18 meetings with Kvalheim and Maaseide.

After the rain-delay, Child and Heese led from the start to down Ricci Luyties (San Diego) and Sinjin Smith (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) of the United States 15-5.  The Canadians won the Bronze Medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.