Intro:

Brazil's men's volleyball team have been practising for the London 212 Olympic Games at their training base near to Rio de Janeiro.

Script:

Brazil's men's volleyball team are aiming for their third Olympic gold medal.

The team will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the events in Beijing in 2008, where they were runners up to the United States.

The entire nation is behind the players as volleyball is the second most popular sport in the country, behind football.

It is not surprising that the sport has so many followers - the national team is considered one of the best of all time and setter Bruno Rezende believes the future is bright for Brazilian volleyball.

SOUNDBITE: (Portuguese) Bruno Rezende, Brazil setter:

"Of course, the talents that are coming to our team help us, but here, on the court, I believe that it is everybody's will, everybody's hunger to keep winning that makes Brazil the best. For me, that's been the greatest secret of Brazilian volleyball over the years and I hope we can continue to win during this Olympic year - that is so important to us."

A quarter of all Olympic tickets that have been sold to Brazilians so far have been for the volleyball.

The travelling supporters will hope that they will be their to witness their national heroes can reclaim the Olympic title they won in Athens eight years ago.