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Weekend 5
China breeze Past
Egypt in a match of services
 Cairo,
Egypt, July 11, 2008- China used the disturbed Egyptian
reception and backline defense to breeze past Egypt 3-0
(25-18, 25-21, 25-23) in front of 4000 Egyptian
spectators in their first match in the fifth weekend of
the intercontinental round of the 2008 FIVB World League
here at Police Union Hall on Friday. The Chinese
opposite and the competition best scorer Zhi Yuan played
a great role in this victory with his unstoppable spikes
from position 2 and also his efficient service. The
victory is the third in this year’s competition and
improved the Chinese win- loss record to 5-4, while
Egypt dropped to 3-6.
The match started with a potent spike from the World
League best scorer Zhi Yuan followed by a fast spike
from Abdel Latif Ahmed from position 3 that kept the
draw 1-1. Egypt right attacker Ahmed Salah started to
work with his unstoppable hits from position 2 aided by
the experience of Egypt captain Hamdy El Safi who served
well and scored 3 points as Egypt led 6-5. China used
their solid block to stop Egypt attacks and succeeded to
lead 8-6 at the first technical timeout (FTT).
The Chinese attacker Dawei Yu served well and the
opposite Yuan used his tactical spikes that allowed
China to lead 11-7 and forced Egypt coach to call
timeout at 11-7. China continued as the better side in
reception and reached to 16-12 at the second technical
timeout (STT).
Egypt players committed frequent reception and digging
mistakes that made the difference for the Chinese side
and so the visitors won the set 25-18.
The second set showed improved reception for Egypt team
and the head coach changed the strategy to the fast
setting through the skillful setter Abdalla Ahmed and
Egypt led regularly till 7-5 when China pummeled the
Egyptian defense again with their spike service and
scored three successive points that put them ahead 8-7
at the FTT. Egypt used the combination to penetrate the
Chinese block and led 11-9, but quickly China regained
their disciplined block of Peng Guo and Dawei Yu and
became ahead again 16-14 at the STT. Egypt coach changed
the center Abdel Latif by Ahmed Mosaad to adjust the
block, but the Chinese coach changed the strategy also
to use the fine touches of the attackers towards the
Egyptian court which was not tolerated by the Egyptian
attackers. China star Yuan again led his team with his
razor sharp rockets from service and spikes and led his
team to win the second set 25-21.
The third set showed improvement in the Egyptian block
through Abdel Latif and Mosaad, while China team was
irritable in reception and Egypt led 6-4 and 7-5 before
China returned back through their efficient service to
lead 8-7 at the FTT. The Egyptian coach substituted the
setter Abdalla by Ashraf Aboul Hassan and the latter led
the Egyptian combinations by the net that deceived the
Chinese block as Salah and Mohamed Badawy used well the
setting to lead widely 16-11 at the STT. China coach
made some substitutions in the attackers to regain the
rhythm after Egypt increased the point deficit to 18-11
and China succeeded to improve the score gradually till
21-20 and the draw 21-21. China with their setter Shuai
Jiao became more disciplined and succeeded to win the
set 25-23.
Press Conference
We played our worst World League match in three years,
Zakaria
Egypt
Egypt head coach, Ahmed Zakaria:
I don’t have any reason for this bad performance of my
players today except the overload due to the long
journey when we returned back from Japan after the last
weekend. We played our worst match in the World league
till now and even when we were ahead by 7 points at the
third set we lost the set. I think we had two main
problems today the first was the first was the bad
blocking against the Chinese attacks and combinations
and the second was the undisciplined reception of the
Chinese service. Although these services were not too
strong, they were very tactical usually between two
players. I hope we can play better in the second match
tomorrow.
Egypt team captain, Hamdy El Safi:
I congratulate the Chinese team for the victory and the
performance. We didn’t play well today and when we tried
to come back in the third set we couldn’t maintain and
lost by strange mistakes. We were very tired after we
returned back from Japan and I don’t have any more
causes.
China
China head coach, Zhou Jianan:
I’m very happy and proud of my team’s performance
specially when they were steady enough in the third set
to overcome the Egyptian lead 18-11. I know Egypt is a
good team but they were not good today maybe because
they still complaining of the time difference since
coming from Japan.
China team captain, Shen Qiong:
I’m happy with our performance today because we had also
difficult problems as we had injured players since the
last weekend against Poland. In the third set we
succeeded to overcome the good Egyptian service and we
managed the situation finally to our side
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