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Egypt edges Poland to
achieve the first ever World League victory
 Alexandria, Egypt, June 13, 2008- Egypt overwhelmed
Poland 3-2 (25-19, 14-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-12) in a
fantastic five sets match to achieve the first ever
World league victory in their first match in the first
weekend of the intercontinental round.
Egypt played a historic match specially the right
attacker Ahmed Salah who was the match star and scored
24 points that put him as the match scorer. Egypt
dominated the match through their better service and
block
Poland started the match by a fast attack through Lukaz
Kadziewicz, but quickly Egypt replied by a strong hit
from Mohamed Badawy to draw 1-1. The match then went
point by point till the draw 7-7 and then Poland used
the reception error of Egypt to lead 8-7 at the first
technical timeout (FTT). Egypt improved their block
against the Polish attacks through the centers Ahmed
Abdel Latif and Mohamed Ali to lead several times 12-11
and 14-13 till Mohamed Badawy came to serve his well
known rockets and succeeded to lead 16-14 at the second
technical timeout (STT). Again Badawy made frequent aces
that allowed Egypt to continue leading 18-14. Again
Egypt used the weapon of the spike service
through Ahmed Salah to continue leading 22-16. Poland
coach made some substitutions and replaced his setter in
an attempt to save the set, but the Egyptian spikers
speciallySaleh Fathy and Salah were better to penetrate
the Polish block till they lead 24-17. Poland tried to
use their service but Egypt succeeded to finish the set
25-19.
In the second set Poland started aggressively through
the service of Marcin Wika to lead 2-1. The Polish
captain Piotr Gruska spiked well and used his experience
in penetrating the Egyptian block and led 5-2 to force
the Egyptian head coach Ahmed Zakaria to call timeout.
With the more disciplined Poland reception and defense
they continued leading 8-4 at the FTT. Again Wika and
Kazysztof Gierczynski spiked well from position 4that
was not tolerated by the Egyptian block and Poland
maintained their lead 13-7. Egypt coach made some
substitutions and played with Mahmoud Raouf in position
4 as he did some successful spikes but Poland blocked
well thereafter to lead 16-10 at the STT. Poland players
were intelligent to use the gaps in the Egyptian
backline defense and continued their wide lead 20-11 and
then 23-13. With the strong service Poland succeeded to
win the set 25-14.
Egypt started the third set like the first and deployed
again their block against Poland attacks and had a start
lead 3-1. Gruszka and the setter Lukasz Zygadlo worked
well in combinations to draw 3-3. Egypt returned back to
reception mistakes allowing Poland to lead 6-5 and then
8-7 at the FTT. With the improved Egyptian block of
Abdel Latif and Mohamed Ali Egypt went through to lead
14-12 forcing the Polish head coach to call timeout at
14-12. After the
timeout Wika pummeled the Egyptian defense with his
outstanding service to allow his team to regain the lead
16-15 at the STT. Egypt coach made a substitution
playing with his captain El Safi for the first time as
the score again became narrower. Poland dealt with the
situation through the different combinations that
deceived the Egyptian block and again increased the
point deficit to 23-19. Egypt struggled to save the set
with the spikes of El Safi and Salah as the reached to
24-22 before Poland scored the set point by an
unstoppable hit from Gierczynski to win the set 25-22.
The fourth set showed Egypt coming through their
tactical service that allowed them to lead 3-1 befopre
Poland arranged their defense and succeeded to draw 6-6.
Egypt again came back with a group of combinations led
by the skillful setter Abdalla Abdel Salam and led 8-7
at the FTT. Salah worked well in spiking from position 2
aided by Badawy who used his backline spikes to deceive
the Polish block as Egypt extended their lead to 14-10.
The middle blocker Kadziewicz sliced through the
Egyptian reception by his razor sharp spike services
that put Poland back near till they draw 15-15. The
center Adel Latif used his fast spike from position 3 to
give Egypt the lead narrowly 16-15 at the STT. After one
of the match best rallies Egypt blocked well through
Abdel Latif twice to lead 18-15. Poland setter Pawel
Woicki made some combinations that allowed Poland to
decrease the point deficit to 18-17. Again Egypt
arranged their block all through the net and El Safi
used his experience to score crucial points as Egypt
became ahead 23-20. Kadziewicz again came to his
tactical service to bring his team back 23-22, but
finally Egypt scored other crucial points through Abdel
Latif to win the set 25-22 and extend the match to
tiebreak.
The tiebreak showed early brilliant performance from
Ahmed Salah that put Egypt ahead 2-1 and 3-2. Poland
used the backline hitters specially their strong wing
spiker Gierczynski who brought his team back to lead
6-5. Salah and Safi helped Egypt to reach 8 -7 at the
court turn. Egypt maintained their lead by one point
till 10 -9 when Poland made some substitutions and used
the efficient tactical service to lead 11-10. Again
Egypt players came on time with some mistakes from
Poland players and led 13-11. With a marvelous spike
from the setter Abdalla Egypt won the set 15-12 and the
match 3-2.
Press Conference
We are proud to win a big team like Poland: Zakaria
Egypt Head Coach, Ahmed Zakaria:
I want to congratulate all the Egyptian volleyball
family for this first ever World league victory and I’m
proud to be the first to achieve this. I want also to
thank the Egyptian spectators who were very important
factor of this victory. I’m also cheered to see my
players acting in this brilliant performance against a
big team like Poland. We lost before many times against
Poland B team but this time we performed our best in
this match even the team captain El Safi and the setter
Abdalla Abdel Salam who were injured during the last
period performed well today when I pushed them in the
suitable time.
Poland Head Coach, Raul Lozano:
We didn’t perform well today and Egypt deserved this
victory because they were the better side. We are now
concentrating on the more important event which is the
Olympic Games and thus I gave a negative rest to some
key stars who will join us in the next match against
china. We played today very serious like playing any
strong team in the world like Brazil or Russia, but the
players were out of their known form.
Egypt Captain: Hamdy El Safi:
I’m happy to be a part of the team that achieved this
first ever victory in the World League. It is a great
honour to defeat a big team like Poland.
Poland Captain Piotr Gruszka
We feel upset to lose this game because we didn’t
perform well specialty in serving and blocking and in
these factors Egypt beat us.
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