McClatchy Washington Bureau

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BEIJING — Between a Macho Man singalong and Beijing's Bikini Babes dancing to Cotton-Eyed Joe in cowboy hats, holsters and string bikinis, crowd participation hardly seems to be beach volleyball's problem in China.

Raucous good time apparently translates easily into Mandarin.

What is lost in translation at times is the game. The Chinese do not quite seem to get beach volleyball. But they follow instructions incredibly well, so they stand when told, cheer loudly when asked, partake in that silly tradition that is the wave and react appropriately to "the English-speaking MC of beach volleyball" Chris "Geeter" McGee.

And "let's hear it for The Beijing Beast" was his go-to line Monday.

What is crazy is he was not talking about a visiting Michael Phelps. Or Yao Ming. Or even Kobe Bryant.

That nickname belongs to Phil Dalhausser, a big yet decidedly unbeastly beach volleyballer for Team USA. So how does one go about becoming The Beijing Beast? And does he support this nickname?

"Well, Geeter coined my original nickname 'thin beast' and he took thin out and put in Beijing," Dalhausser said. "I'll keep it until I am out of here."

That might be a while if he plays like he did Monday's quarterfinal against Germany's Eric Koreng and David Klemperer. Dalhausser was ... well ... a beast in a 21-13, 25-23 victory.

"He was definitely Beijing Beast," his teammate Todd Rogers said. "He was pretty damn good."

The Germans plan, at least early, was to go after Dalhausser. They wanted to get him on the move and force him to pass and go away from his strength, which is spiking the ball so hard you want to duck and using his 6-9 body to block almost everything.

"We tried to go after Phil but he was too good," Klemperer said.

And while his dominance was good for Team USA in a very easy first-game victory, it was boring to watch. The crowd was unenthused, despite the constant provocation, until the second game when the on-sand play eclipsed the bikini babes.

Points were contested. The score tottered back and forth. There was even a red card, issued to Germany for excessively arguing a call.

It was a very, very close call.

The Germans still think it was wrong, but they played nice afterward.

"I think he tried to do his best. So it's OK," Klemperer said. "They were judgment calls, his judgment. It can happen."

The Americans benefitted from another very close call in that decisive second set, an out-of-bounds call which Rogers admitted "could have gone either way".

What eventually led to Germany's defeat was Dalhausser, who was passing and spiking and blocking like a ... well ... beast.

Dalhausser and Rogers advance to play Georgia's Brazilian-born duo of Renato Gomes and Jorge Terceiro, who have been racking up upsets these Games. There is a decent chance of an all-American final with Jacob Gibb and Sean Rosenthal.

"We want to smoke them and they want to smoke us," Roger said. "I think that would be a really fun match, you would see a lot of great plays, freaky good. I think you'd see four friends having a good time."

As well as the Macho Man-singing, Bikini-Babe watching crowd.