We count down our favorite memories from the finals…

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Casey all smiles after he and Theo toppled the World Champs!

This week we’re counting down our favorite five memories from the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals in Hamburg.

We kick off with number five…

World Champs beaten on day 1!

We only had to wait until the second match of the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone for our first big story – and what a shock it was!

American wildcards Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner came into the tournament determined to prove that they weren’t just in Germany because they, in Casey’s words, like to “goof around”.

Indeed, there was not a single goofy sight on show when they duo – a new team for 2017 – put newly crowned World Champions Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola to the sword in a captivating match that the North Americans win in three sets.

“We want to show everyone that we can play beach volleyball and we did that,” said a delighted Casey afterwards.

It was the perfect start to the tournament for the Americans and, even though their story came to an end in the first elimination stage, losing to German team Böckermann/Schümann, this result was one to savour for Casey and Theo.

Swatch Major Series on Twitter

Monsterblock settles first set for @LordBrunner and @caseypatt against Brazilian Worldchampions 🙌🏻🇺🇸🇧🇷 #HamburgFinals https://t.co/nT2m2Xeobp