Lack of friendly matches put a load upon Egyptian preparation for the World League‏

28 August 2012

Cairo, Egypt, August 28, 2012- Egypt Men’s Volleyball National team coach Hossam Abdel Aziz selected the final squad for the Playoff 2, Round 1 of World League 2013 Qualifications ahead of their matches against Iran on August 31 and September 2.

 The Egyptians will play two games against Iran where the winner will challenge Japan in Round 2.

 Selected team include Ahmed Abdalla, Ashraf Aboulhassan, Hossam Youssef (Setters), Ahmed Abdelatif, Rashad Attia, Mohamed Ketat, Mohamed Ali Seifelnasr (Centers), Mohamed Badawy, Ahmed Youssef, Mohamed Moustafa, Saleh Youssef (Attackers) Ahmed Abdelhay, Reda Heikal (Opposites) and Wael Alaydy (Libero).  

 The lack of proper preparation and friendly matches constitute the main difficulty for the Egyptian coach who took over the responsibility after the World Olympic Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria last June where Egypt finished in the third position at the 4 Nation tournament to miss the Olympic ticket. Due to the stoppage of the local league, the players were out of the technical form at the dead season.    

 Since that Olympic qualifier, the Egyptian team didn’t play any friendly match, a situation that obligated the coach to depend on the same names who have the previous experience with the international competitions.

 “We worked very hard in the last three weeks to reach the top performance of the players before the first match against Iran,” Hassam Said.

 “We will depend on some tactical matches between the players to replace lack of friendly matches. We followed also the last matches for Iran team to study their players specially the last match against Egypt in the 2011 World Cup where the Iranians won in straight sets.” He added.