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weekend 2
Egypt cruises past
Japan to achieve the second victory in 24 hours
 Alexandria,
Egypt, June 21, 2008- The African champions Egypt
rebounded from one set behind to edge the Asian Olympic
qualifiers Japan 3-1 (21-25, 26-24, 25-18) in minutes of
thriller action supported by the attendance of about
5000 spectators in the second weekend of the
intercontinental round of the 2008 FIVB World League
here at Mubarak complex Hall in Alexandria, Egypt on
Saturday.
The Egyptian big gun Ahmed Salah played a great role in
the victory with his unstoppable hits that disturbed the
Japanese block all through the excited spectators aided
by the skillful setting by both the Egyptian setters
Abdalla Abdel Salam and Ashraf Aboul Hassan. Egypt
improved their win- loss record to 3-1 at the end of the
second weekend, while Japan dropped to 1-3.
Japan started the match using the strong spike services
of Tatsuya Fukuzawa who left the service only when the
result became 5-0 as the Egyptian team didn’t tolerate
the reception of these razor sharp services. Egypt
improved their reception and also the block of Mohamed
Ali and through building up the attacks Ahmed Salah
started to do his job in spiking from all net positions
till the point deficit decreased to 6-3. Again Japan
used their big gun Shimizu to stay ahead 8-4 at the
first technical timeout FTT. With the spiking machine
Salah penetrating regularly the Japanese block from
position 2 and the improved Egyptian block the point
difference decreased to 12-9 for the Japanese team and
the Japanese coach Ueta was obligated to call time out
that resulted fruitfully when Japan extended their lead
16-10 at the second technical timeout STT. Afterwards
Shimizu regained his potent spikes and the score widened
to 19-13. Egypt coach made some substitutions to stop
Japan attacks. Egypt changed the strategy of attacks
using the fast setting by the substitute setter Ashraf
Aboul Hassan and Japan replied quickly improving the
block and defense and led 24-19. Egypt struggled to save
the set and scored two points from the service of Abdel
Latif Ahmed before he missed the third service and Japan
won the set 25-21.
Egypt started the second set with a different
performance as they took care of the service as a main
tool of advance and after Japan led 2-0 they recorded 4
successive points and led 4-2. Japan setter Masayuki
Iwata led the combinations using the wing spikers
specially Ko Tanimura and regained the lead 8-6 at the
FTT. Japan used the different combinations by the net,
but Egypt quickly deployed their block and used the
service of Abdel Latif and the unstoppable spikes of
Salah to draw 15-15 before Japan went to 16-15 at the
STT. The match then went point by point through the
efficient defense of both teams until Abdel Latif came
to serve as he scored 3 aces that put Egypt ahead again
21-18. Japan struggled again and succeeded to come from
21-24 to save three set points till the draw 24-24.
Egypt coach changed the setter again as Abdalla led his
team to win the set 26-24.
As the Japanese coach fixed the starting player, the
Egyptian coach substituted the center Mohamed Ali by the
experienced Hossam Shaarawy and the host team used the
weapon of the strong spike service to lead until 8-5.
The Egyptian big gun Ahmed Salah played a great role
with his unstoppable hits that allowed Egypt to double
the score 14-7 before leading at the STT 16-9. Japan
deployed their block of Takaaki Tomimura and Yoshihiko
Matsumoto specially against Salah and decreased the
point deficit to 19-15. Japan coach changed the setter
while as the Egyptian coach made also some substitutions
in the attacking players and Egypt succeeded to win the
third set 25-18 and improved the sets to 2-1.
The fourth set showed early Egyptian dominance through
the disciplined defense as they led 3-1 after a great
performance from the wing spiker Mohamed Badawy. Japan
came to the set quickly through their efficient service
and succeeded to lead 8-4 at the FTT. Egypt struggled
back and again Salah played a great role with the
combinations of the setter Aboul Hassan as Egypt reached
to the draw 15-15 before Japan led 16-15 at the STT with
a fast spike from Tomimatsu. Egypt dominated the court
with their higher motivations and led 22-20. Egypt
succeeded to score the crucial points to win the set
25-21 and the match 3-1.
Press Conference
Now we are thinking to qualify to the finals in Brazil,
Says Egypt coach Zakaria
EGYPT
Egypt Head Coach, Ahmed Zakaria:
I’m very happy to win the two matches against Japan and
I think this will give us a great push and now we are
trying to qualify to the finals if we continued the same
performance. After our victory yesterday we made some
substitutions in the line up to co apt with the high
performance of Japan in the second match. Japan was very
good in the first and second sets and we tried to come
back as early as possible and succeeded to win three
successive sets. Now we are looking forwards to win the
two matches of the third weekend as we will travel to
china on Monday although we will play without our
experienced captain Hamdy El Safi.
Egypt Captian, Hamdy El Safi:
We started the match very nervous because we didn’t Want
to repeat what happened against Poland when we lost the
second match after winning the first. We faced some
problems in the first and second sets as the Japanese
team was very good in spiking and serving. After our
coach made some substitutions we succeeded to go through
the match and win our third match in two weekends till
now.
JAPAN
Japan Head Coach, Tatsuya Ueta:
Today we played very bad in all volleyball skills. We
didn’t enter mentally the match from the start to the
end so I give my team zero mark today. Egypt was better
today in many aspects specially in reception and serving
Japan Captain, Takeshi Kitajima:
Today Egypt team was very good in all volleyball skills.
We spiked a lot but most of these were outside and thus
we lost the match. Egypt succeeded today to penetrate
our block more easily than expected
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