How it unfolded
America's 1984 Los Angeles gold had carried the asterisk of a Soviet boycott. In Seoul, the Soviets returned, and the two teams met in the final. Coach Marv Dunphy, inheriting Doug Beal's swing offense, led an American team built around Karch Kiraly, Steve Timmons and Craig Buck, in which every player served, moved and jumped. The Soviets took the first set 13-15. But from the second set on, the Americans turned their serve extremely aggressive. With their receive destabilized, the Soviets couldn't run their quick middle attack, and once forced into predictable high balls, American blocking shut them down. The second set went 15-10, the third an overwhelming 15-4, and the fourth closed it out 15-8. Kiraly was named tournament MVP, his second and final Olympic gold in indoor volleyball.
Why it still matters
This match proved American power volleyball could beat the Soviet Union head-on, and it was the last scene before state-funded amateur systems gave way to the West's wave of professionalization. The American men's team went 20 years without another gold until Beijing in 2008, and the Soviet Union itself collapsed three years later. It was the turning point where volleyball's center of gravity shifted away from the Cold War axis and toward Italy and Brazil.