Reigning world champion and Athens Games silver winner Russia was humiliated by World No.1 Brazil in its second straight loss at the women's volleyball preliminaries of the Beijing Olympic Games here on Monday.

Two days after Italian head coach Giovanni Caprara blamed the negative attitude of the Russian players, they put up no real resistance in the 25-14, 25-14 and 25-16 defeat against the seven-time World Grand Prix champion.

"I think they didn't want to play," said Sheilla Castro, who scored 11 points in Brazil's second win in two tries. "It seems they have a problem inside, but I don't know."

Despite the straight-sets loss, Russia captain and setter Marina Sheshenina insisted they played better than in the 3-1 defeat against World Cup winner Italy on Saturday.

"It's a pity to lose again, but I think we played better than we did in the last match," said Sheshenina at the post-match press conference.

"I just want to say that Brazil is a very strong team and we had better concentration than the last match," she added.

According to Sheshenina, the Russian women, who eyed a medal at the Beijing Games, were not affected by their coach's criticism.

"We work as a team and nobody criticized us," she said.

Caprara, who took the helm of the Russian team in 2005 before leading it to the top of the podium at the World Championship one year later, attributed his players' lackluster performance to the absence at international stage in the last two years.

"Our team and the Brazilian team had very different experience," he said. "They played a lot of high level international matches in the World Cup last year and World Grand Prix this year, while we did not qualify for either tournament."

"Brazil gave us a lesson of volleyball today," Caprara added. "They played with double speed compared to Russia, they concentrated on their play, and technically they were much better than Russia."

Only two days ago, Caprara blamed her players on their attitude following an opening loss in the 12-team tournament.

"The start time is not only early for us but for Italy too, but there is a different mentality with Russian teams regarding early matches as they tend to have an issue with fatigue," said Caprara. "I have to persuade them and work hard to overcome this mentality and be prepared for tough matches, but it seems that I fought here alone. It's an issue of attitude," he added.

As Russia struggled with its form and mentality, the Brazilian women looked gorgeous in pursuit of their first ever Olympic gold medal.

"We played well from the beginning till the end," said Brazil captain Fofao, a 30-year-old veteran setter. "We concentrated very well throughout the match."

While Brazil head coach Roberto Guimaraes was trying to keep his head clear after her team improved to a 2-0 win-loss record in round robin pool B.

"Of course I am happy to win, we did very well, we played with concentration and consistency, but it's just the second round of play," said Guimaraes. "We have to keep working and do it step by step, it's very important."

Fabiana Claudino scored 14 points to lead four Brazilian attackers in double scoring digits.

Source:Xinhua