|
Poland overwhelms
Egypt to take the revenge
 Alexandria, Egypt, June 14, 2008- Poland
cruises past Egypt 3-1 (25-20, 13-25, 25-17, 25-21) in
100 minutes and took the revenge after they lost against
them in the first match. Poland improved their record to
1-1 at the end of the first weekend of the
intercontinental round of the 2008 World league, while
Egypt dropped to 1-1.
The Polish team led by the captain Piotr Gruszka and the
efficient wing spiker Marcin Wika succeeded to penetrate
the less disciplined defense and block to win the match.
Gruszka came as the match scorer with 16 points same
like the Egyptian right attacker Ahmed Salah.
With a spike from Marcin Wika in position 4 Poland
opened the score and continued leading till 5-0
depending on the stable block of Piotr Nowakowski before
Egypt scored their first point from a service mistake.
The bad reception of the Egyptian players allowed Poland
to go through easily and lead 8-2 at the first technical
timeout (FTT). Ahmed Salah started to send his razor
sharp spikes from position 2 and also pummeled the
Polish team with his strong spike service to decrease
the point deficit to 10-5. Egypt team suffered from the
bad reception and the frequent mistakes as Poland went
easily ahead 16-7 at the second technical timeout (STT).
After that the Egyptian spiker Mohamed Badway used his
spike service to improve the score to 17-11, but quickly
Poland regained the rhythm using the fast attack through
the middle blocker Lukasz Kadziewicz to lead 21-14. the
Egyptian setter Abdalla Abdel Salam remembered his
efficient service and improved the score to 22-17
forcing the Polish coach to call time out. Poland
improved their attacks through Krzysztof Giercznski and
Piotr Gruszka and succeeded to win the set 25-20.
Egypt worked well in blocking in the second set and
succeeded to lead 3-2 after they stopped frequent Polish
attacks and also through the spikes of Salah which
penetrated the Polish defense efficiently and thus Egypt
became ahead 6-3 and continued their superior
performance till 8-4 at the FTT. The reception and block
of Poland team was less consistent than in the first set
and thus it was easy for Egypt through the spikes of
Saleh Fathy and Salah and the potent spike service of
Badawy to extent their lead 16-7 at the STT. Poland
tried to use the spike services to come back, but the
Egyptian performance reached to the utmost with the
egytpian coach fielding the captain Handy El Safi as
they succeeded to win the set 25-13.
The third set showed early Egyptian lead through the
combinations led by the experienced setter Ashraf Aboul
Hassan who led the backline attacks that deceived the
Polish block as Egypt went ahead 3-1. Poland used their
big gun Gruszka to come near 3-3 before they led
gradually after a group of tactical service and led 8-5
at the FTT. Again Aboul Hassan led the Egyptian attacks
that decreased the point deficit to 12-11. Gierczynski
started to do his job in spiking from position 4 and so
after the draw 13-13 Poland led 15-13 and 16-14 at the
STT. Poland succeeded frequently to penetrate the Polish
block through Wika and Gierczynski and increased the
point deficit gradually till they won the set 25-17.
Poland started the fourth set with some combinations led
by the setter Pawel Woicki to lead 5-2. Salah did his
usual good job in spiking form both the front and the
backlines and bring Egypt back near 7-6 before Poland
practiced their powerful attacks to stay ahead 8-6 at
the FTT. Poland regained their superiority in service
and succeeded to use the undisciplined Egyptian backline
defense to go through leading 11-7. Egypt deployed their
solid block of Abdel Latif Ahmed and also used the
efficient spikes of Fathy and Salah to draw 13-13. Salah
again pummeled the Polish defense with his sharp hits to
bring his team ahead 16-15 at the STT. Poland used again
the disturbance of the Egyptian defense and sent their
tactical spikes to lead 20-18. Poland became dominant in
all net actions and succeeded to lead regularly till
23-19 and won the set 25-21 and the match 3-1.
Press Conference
We Played much better than yesterday: Lozano
Poland
Poland Head Coach, Raul Lozano:
I believe we played much better today than yesterday as
we improved our attacks and service that was very
important in this victory. Generally we performed better
today in all volleyball skills as we studied well the
Egyptian players from the last match ands succeeded to
stop their attacks.
Poland Captain Piotr Gruszka
I’m happy to achieve this victory specially after we
lost the first match. We applied all our attacking
skills today and practiced out tactics that succeeded to
bring the victory
Egypt
Egypt Head Coach, Ahmed Zakaria:
We were affected by the first match because we did a
great effort in the first match the players couldn’t
maintain their performance because we are in an early
stage of preparations and thus most of the key players
were not the same level like yesterday. Our main problem
today was the physical fitness and the reception and
Poland did a big pressure on our team through the
service. I think Poland coach studied us well after the
first match and succeeded to know our strong points.
Egypt Captain: Hamdy El Safi:
I congratulate Poland for this victory and the
performance. I think we suffered a lot because have many
injuries in our squad and also we suffered from playing
5 sets yesterday. Generally Poland played a great match
today, but we were less concentrating in reception and
defense.
|
