BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : U.S. Unceremoniously Escapes Japan : Men’s volleyball: Losing coach files protest when Samuelson isn’t disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Overlooking Japan while looking for a third consecutive gold medal, the U.S. men’s volleyball team almost was on the wrong side of a stunning upset Sunday in the opening game of the Summer Olympics.

But although Bob Samuelson lost his head and almost cost his team the match, Jeff Stork used his as the United States survived five games and improved its record over the last three Olympics to 13-1.

“I don’t think anyone on our team is satisfied,” said Steve Timmons, who played for the championships teams in 1984 and 1988. “We squeaked this one out as close as we could. Maybe this scare will wake us up a little bit.”

How close was it?

Trailing by 2-1, the United States won the fourth game on a sudden-death point, 17-16, when a ball blocked by two Japanese defenders hit Stork in the forehead and bounced over the net and into an unattended zone.

That game up the decisive fifth game, which the United States also won for a 15-8, 11-15, 10-15, 17-16, 16-14 victory over a team that it had beaten four times this year, three times with relative ease.

The Japanese coach, Seiji Oko, said that he believed his team should have won this time, particularly after Samuelson, of Marina del Rey, received his second yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct while the United States was trailing, 14-13, in the fourth game.

According to International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) rules, the referee, Ramis Samedov of Azerbaijan, had the discretion at that point to serve Samuelson a red card, which would have disqualified him from the match. Because Japan was serving, it also would have been awarded an automatic point, which would have given it the game and the match.

“I wasn’t aware that I had already received a yellow card,” Samuelson said. “I had problems with the line judge, and I just got carried away and let my emotions go too far.”

So did the Japanese coach, Oko, when he realized that Samedov would not issue the red card. He filed a protest, which was referred by the two-member jury to FIVB President Ruben Acosta of Mexico.

U.S. Volleyball Assn. officials said that they did not believe the result of the match would be overturned, noting that referees rarely award an automatic point to a team if it determines the outcome of a match. But they acknowledged concern when Acosta requested a meeting today with U.S. Coach Fred Sturm and team captain Scott Fortune of Laguna Beach.

Ironically, one reason that Samuelson is such a vital member of the team is because of his excitable nature. He entered the match after starting middle blocker Bryan Ivie of Manhattan Beach suffered a leg cramp at the end of the second game and was unable to return.

Sturm said that he was not sure his team could have won Sunday without Samuelson’s spirited play.

“He makes so many things happen in so many areas,” Sturm said. “When he comes into the game, we elevate our level.”

Despite the loss, Oko said that he was pleased with his team’s performance. The Japanese played defense all over the court, and even off of it, as they knocked over barriers in front of spectators’ seats at the Sports Palace several times while chasing the ball. When their offense began to produce midway through the second game, an upset appeared imminent.

“They were playing as well as I’ve seen them play,” Timmons said. “I could already hear the people in Japan celebrating in the streets during the match.”

The fact that the United States prevailed was probably due more to its experience than anything else. Three members of the team--Timmons of Newport Beach, Stork of Topanga Canyon and Bob Ctvrtlik of Long Beach--are veterans of the 1988 gold-medal team.

“We can play better,” Sturm said. “But one thing we did well was that, when it was time to make the big plays, we made them, especially at the end of (games) four and five.”

Timmons said that the team might have been flat because it attended Saturday night’s opening ceremony and did not return to its quarters in the athletes’ village until after midnight. Sunday’s game began at 1 p.m.

“It’s tough to say how much the opening ceremony took out of us,” he said. “I wasn’t going to miss it. I was right there with Magic Johnson and all the other basketball players. It’s a great opportunity you don’t get many times in your life.

“We all wanted to do it, although, if we had been playing a team that we thought was going to give us more difficulty, we might have thought about it a little more.”