Russia defeated the Fighting
Egypt 3-1
 Kazan,
Russia, June 17, 2007-: Russia Men’s Volleyball team rebounded
from one set behind to achieve a 3-1 victory over the solid
Egyptian team who played their best match in their history in
front of the Russian spectators who clapped for the Egyptians
when they were one point near to win the second set to raise the
score to 2-0 before losing narrowly after missing three set
points. The Russians came back to the match very late to win
another two points that put them at the top of Pool C with 15
points from a win – loss ratio of 7-1, four points ahead of both
Cuba and Serbia. Egypt stayed at the bottom of the pool with 8
points.
The Russian team started the match with the main line up with
the setter Serguei Grankine instead of the team captain Vadim
Khamuttskikh but the latter was the turning point of the match
when he participated in the mid of the second set. Egypt started
with the same line up that played in the first match but they
showed a completely different performance than the first match.
The Polish head coach of Egypt Grzegrz Rys was much cheered
after the match because his players fought all through the match
and that was missed in their first match on Saturday and he
referred this dramatic improvement to the intensive advises
since the first match. “I’m glad that all my team could fight in
all sets and actually we were near to win the match if we had
won the second set after we led 24-22 and missed three set
points before losing. I think if we won that set we might have a
surprising victory.” Rys said. The Egyptian coach was clear to
express that his team still have the same problem in losing the
critical p;oints of the match because this needs more
experience. “We had more chance today in attacks because the
Russians didn’t use their well known spike service because the
match went point by point and that made them ore careful” He
added.
The Egyptian team captain El Safi said that his team played with
a completely different spirit and that was the main reason to
show their skills.
The Egyptian team appeared with a better performance than the
first match specially in reception and digging and they could
withstand the Russian spikes. They used the wing spiker Saleh
Fathy and the opposite Ahmed Salah to lead for the first time at
the first technical Time out 8-7. Russia came to the match and
used the experienced opposite Semen Poltavski who had successful
spikes from position 2 to allow his team to lead 14-12. Again
Egypt used the spike service of Abdalla abdel Salam and Mahmoud
Raouf to continue leading at the STT 16-15. Russia used their
potent service of Volkov and Ostapenko to lead 24-22 before the
Egyptians fought back through the efficient spikes of Fathy and
Hamdy El Safi to score 4 successive points and win the set
26-24.
Egypt started the second set with the same rhythm and used again
the efficient spikes of Salah and Fathy and deployed their solid
block of Mohamed El Sayed and Mohamed Ali to lead 8-5. The
Russian coach substituted the setter Grankine with the team
captain Khamuttskikh and the Russians re- arranged their defense
again to come near 12-10 for Egypt. The performance of the
Egyptians was marvelous through the good digging and the
fighting spirit to lead 16-12. Russia regained their performance
afterwards after the participation of Kazakov till they got the
draw 22-22. Egypt led again 24-22 after two efficient spikes
from Fathy but Russia came on time and repeated what Egypt did
in the first set after 2 reception mistakes from the Egyptian
libero Ahmed Kamal to win the set in the same score 26-24.
The third set showed again high performance from the Egyptians
who used the spikers of Salah and Fathy to lead 5-2.Russia used
the strong hits of Yurily Berezhko and the service of Ostapenko
to lead for the first time 16-13. Russia returned back to the
service weapon to disturb the Egyptian attacks and succeeded to
lead 23-16 before wining the set 25-17.
Russia played with the full power in the fourth set as the team
captain led the combinations using skillful setting to the wing
spikers Korneev and Ostapenko to lead 8-7. Egyptian coach
Grzegrz Rys substituted Fathy by the wig spiker Mohamed Abdel
Moneim who had many successful spikes to allow Egypt to get the
lead 19-18. The thriller set went point by point thereafter
until the draw 20-20. Egypt players fell in some service and
reception mistakes to allow Russia to lead again 23-20 before
ending the set 25-22 and the match 3-1.
By Tarek Aladwar from Kazan,
Russia |
