16-Nov, start time: 18:00, end time: 19:25 - Attendance: 12,000

JPN	3	25	25	25	-	-	75
EGY	0	20	17	23	-	-	60

Match Description:

Great start for home side
Hosts of the 2003 Men's World Cup Japan gave their fans the perfect welcome when they opened their campaign in this Olympic qualifying event with an efficient straight sets win over Egypt in front of a packed Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

Much to the delight of the 14,000 local fans, Japan used great innovation and energy through their popular captain Yoichi Kato and the lethal left arm spiking of 200cm Takahiro Yamamoto, the MIP for the match, to gain ascendancy and open a first set lead of 22-17. That signaled the introduction of regular starters Daisuke Usami and Nobuyoshi Hosokawa and Japan took out the first set 25-20 soon after.

The second set continued along in the same pattern with the Japanese offensive game working well, while Egypt, who have come into the World Cup on the back of winning the All African Games title in October, showed glimpses of class when given the chance. Admittedly Egypt's experience at this level is less than would be desired but under new coach Veselin Vukovic, the former coach of Serbia and Montenegro, they displayed great determination and competitiveness, especially on defence.

However, Japan still took out the second set by eight points and despite being pushed all the way in the third when Egypt led at 23-22 Japan still went on to claim the third set by 25-23, after Egyptian captain Elsafy Awad spiked out, accompanied by the deafening applause of the many mums, dads and kids who came to see their stars play.

Comments:

TANAKA, Mikiyasu (JPN Head Coach)
The players were a little bit nervous because of the first match, but ace attachers, Kato and Yamamoto had done their job perfectly. The problems of this match were that we could not use center players much, and we have made too many serving mistakes. Anyway, we are relieved to win the first match.

KATO, Yoichi (JPN Captain)
We have thought that this first match is the most important for us at the first stage. Not only team but also myself could do what we should do. We were able to win with good mood. I think the side players have to pass the ball well to the setter, then we can use center players more.

VUKOVIC, Veselin (EGY Head Coach)
We knew we were playing against a strong team. We were not experienced in international match, so we could not do what we wanted in the first and the second sets and there was little concentration, but the third set was satisfactory. We are satisfied to play against strong teams through this tournament, and this will be a good preparation for the Olympic Qualification in our continent in January to improve our skills.

AWAD, Hamdy Elsafy (EGY Captain)
Because of Ramadan, we could eat from only half an hour before the match, so it was difficult to play, but we did our best. We have young players and only two or three experienced ones. We had a bad start but in the third set, it became better. It is a good experience to play international matches and we will be content if we could win two or three matches.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF