News The USA volleyball team, reigning World Cup champions, have nothing to fear from Olympic host nation Brazil and their passionate home support, captain David Lee said in Rio de Janeiro this Thursday (16 June) Lee identified Brazil as the team to beat at this year's Olympic Games when he was last in Rio, for the test event last year But the veteran blocker said the Americans have been preparing to face down the world no 1 Brazilian team this August "We are prepared for the crowd and the noise," Lee said "We have played in Brazil many times and last year we played against them in the Maracanãzinho in the World League " The Maracanãzinho will be the venue for all the volleyball matches of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games "We work closely with a sports psychologist who helps us get in the moment and focus on the present," the 34-year-old told Rio2016 com Lee in action at the Rio 2016 test event last year (Photo: Getty Images/ Alexandre Schneider) Lee and the USA team are in Rio to compete in the 2016 World League tournament The highlight of the opening round of the competition will be the much-anticipated showdown between the USA and Brazil this Saturday Good omens for the USA Lee says the World League is a competition that the USA always takes very seriously in an Olympic year "Historically we normally have good results in the World League and that translates to good results in the Olympics,"  Lee said "Before we won gold at Beijing 2008, we won the World League final in the Maracanãzinho in 2008 We also had a good World League in 2012, before one of our best starts to an Olympic Games in London "This is an important tournament for us to see where we are at going into the Olympics, and to see what weaknesses we need to work on and what strengths we can build on " USA coach John Speraw, who has been with the team since 2008, is using the competition to whittle down his squad for Rio 2016, which currently consists of 19 players, to just 12   Lee said the current squad is a strong combination of experience – Rio 2016 will be his third Olympic Games and the fourth for Reid Priddy – and youth "We have a lot of group meetings in which we talk about our past experiences," he says "We are trying to prepare our young players for the amount of stress in the Olympics  There are a lot more distractions with the Olympic Games than with other tournaments " The USA will be staying outside the athletes' village during Rio 2016, in a hotel near the Maracanãzinho venue After two successful World League seasons crowned with gold (2014) and bronze (2015), they began their 2016 campaign in Rio with a 3-1 victory against Argentina in Carioca Arena 1 in Barra Olympic Park Lee believes up to six teams have a chance of winning gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, out of a total of 12 countries taking part As well as Brazil and the USA he singled out defending Olympic champions Russia, World League champions France and world champions Poland