20-Nov, start time: 15:00, end time: 16:16 - Attendance: 2,180

EGY	0	22	20	29	-	-	71
CHN	3	25	25	31	-	-	81

Match Description:

China collect first World Cup win
Asian vice-champions China registered their first win of the 2003 Men's World Cup with a confidence building straight sets victory over Egypt in the second match of Round Two in the Hiroshima Green Arena on Thursday.

Egypt, , got off to a great start powering to a 6-2 lead on the back of a couple of monster spikes from captain Elsafy Awad but a lack of precision struck them badly as China crept back into the game thanks to some excellent control from captain Hairong Shi and quality finishing from Miao Tang, which put the Asians in front at 11-10. Once China got their nose in front there was no looking back as Xiaodong Zhang used his 203cm frame to great effect on the block and libero Hui Chi was excellent on the dig, giving China the first set 25-22.

The start of the second set was China's turn to make the good start, jumping to a 7-3 and 13-8 lead before an ace by Chun Li took them out to 18-11, emphasizing the control China had of the set. A few mistakes crept in later in the set but Qiong Shen settled things with a smash to centre court to put China up two sets to none.

An animated team talk from Egyptian coach gave the All African champions the impetus they were looking for at the start of the third set to keep pace with the Chinese at 12-12 but a long serve from Abdelnaeim Salah temporarily upset their rhythm and China crept ahead again. However, Egypt, who due to Ramadan can't drink or eat during daylight hours, continued to show great spirit and stamina as Salah spiked home to put them back in front at 19-18, giving China plenty to think about in terms of wrapping up a straight sets victory.

With Egypt gaining in confidence, a Xiadong Cui spike and a Zhang block gave China the lead at 21-20 but Egypt held on. It wasn't until a successful spike from captain and MIP Shi and a power serve from Cui had China finally claimed the match.

Comments:

VUKOVIC, Veselin (EGY, Head Coach)
Congratulations CHN team.
Our team needs a lot of experience at the international games. We had a big chance to win at the third set, but we made more errors than CHN, also those were serious errors.

ALAYDY, Wael Hassanien (EGY)
We came here to win the game, but lost. We continue to establish preparation for the Athens Olympic Games. I hope our team improving match by match.

DI, Anhe (CHN, Head Coach)
As we lost last 3 games, it was good for us to win against EGY. Our players are still young, I think that winning the game at the international match is very important to their future.

SHEN, Qiong (CHN)
We knew EGY team is a strong team. We did our best performance through the game. Comparing to the last matches, we did not have a heavy burden this afternoon.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF