21-Nov, start time: 12:35, end time: 13:37 - Attendance: 2,000

USA	3	25	25	22	25	-	97
EGY	1	22	19	25	14	-	80

Match Description:

USA power past Egypt
USA marched to their fourth win in five matches after they proved too big and strong for a young Egyptian side in the first match of the 2003 Men's World Cup in the Hiroshima Green Arena on Friday.

The win keeps the NORCECA continental champions in touch with the competition leaders Brazil and Serbia and Montenegro, who are both unbeaten, and still in touch of an Olympic qualifying spot, which is awarded to the top three.

Despite starting the match without captain Lloy Ball, USA looked impressive, especially on defence courtesy of the introduction of 211cm Adam Naeve for the first time in the tournament. But it was big Gabriel Gardner (209cm) and Riley Salmon who were the main benefactors as they pounded the Egyptian defence and it wasn't long before a serve out by Abdelnaeim Salah gave the Americans the first set 25-22.

USA continued to overpower the All African champions in the second set, another power smash from MIP Brook Billings giving USA an early 8-5 lead, and big plays from Ryan Miller on defence and Riley Salmon on attack just deflated Egypt. Coach Veselin Vukovic tried to use his bench but this didn't stem the flow and it took just 20 minutes before the second set was over courtesy of a Billings smash for his 12th point of the match.

Much to the chagrin of coach Doug Beal USA trailed early in the third set 7-4 as mistakes crept into their game. Egypt pounced upon the opportunity and a Weal Said block gave them the break they were after at 22-18 before Ossama Kemsan spiked home the winner.

But USA kicked into gear again and soon opened a 10-4 lead before taking the one-sided fourth set to seal the match.

Comments:

VUKOVIC, Veselin (EGY, Head coach)
USA is a strong team. The level of our performance was unsteady. As we are not professional players, we made a couple of mistakes on the important moments. Experiences on this tournament is important for us to have a good preparation for the coming Olympic Qualification tournament of Africa in January.

AWAD, Hamdy Elsafy (EGY, captain)
For us it is a success to win a set for any team. It would be even better if we could have won one more set. But USA ia a strong team. I am hopeful that we could play better and better on the later stage of the tournament.

BEAL, Douglas (UAS, Head Coach)
We played pretty well at some parts of the game. I knew that Egypt is a competitive team, since we lost one set at World Championships last year. Today I used some players who have not played much here in this tournament. We are a deep team. I believe that the depth of us is beneficial to compete throughout the tournament.

SULLIVAN, Erik (USA)
I think Egypt is getting better match by match. Their service reception and defense were good. We lost one set to a very good team.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF