25-Nov, start time: 12:35, end time: 13:37 - Attendance: 1,100

BRA	3	25	25	25	-	-	75
EGY	0	20	20	13	-	-	53

Match Description:

Brazil stutter to eighth victory
Unbeaten World Cup leaders Brazil ran hot and cold on their way to their eighth win of the tournament in a straight sets performance against Egypt in the opening match in Okayama on Tuesday.

Coming off the back of a convincing straight sets victory over Canada on Monday, the world champions made things tough for themselves in a one-sided affair. The power of Andre, the class of Giba and Sergio and the height advantage through MIP Gustavo, Dante and Rodrigo was too much for Egypt, the All African champions, who have still to register their first win of the tournament but much to coach Bernardo Rezende's anguish, mistakes underlined Brazil's 60 minute performance.

Brazil, only as they can do, made four changes to their starting lineup without losing anything in terms of team strength but today's performance left a lot to be desired with three matches remaining in the tournament.

From the opening whistle, the 2003 World League titleholders went to work straight away with Rodrigo completing a block and before you know it, Brazil were ahead 5-1. Andre and Giba proved too strong in a first set, where Brazil worked on their combinations while Egypt fought gamely. Captain Hamdy Elsafy Awad was a great example, leading the scorers in the first set with five points. It only took 19 minutes before Andre finished the set with his fourth spike.

However the onset of errors began in the second set as Brazil had problems in shaking Egypt loose. Mistakes crept into their game and they would argue that the referee calls didn't go their way either but at 12-10 up Brazil got back on top with a Gustavo spike putting them ahead 15-11. But with Brazil up 23-19 Rezende introduced Mauricio in place of setter Ricardo and Anderson for Andre to change the pattern of their play. Minutes later, a serve too long from Eslam Mohamed Awad gave Brazil the set at 25-20.

The Brazil of old was back in the third set when six Anderson serves gave Brazil a 23-11 lead but despite a reduction in the errors, the victory wasn't entirely

Comments:

REZENDE, Bernardo (BRA, Head Coach)
EGY displayed their full potential in this match. Their stable reception and attacking troubled us throughout the first two sets. In the last set the pressure I imposed on the players made their performance improve. Our schedule in the next round in Tokyo is the worst for us, so we have to prepare for it and get ourselves into shape during next two days. It is still uncertain that we will be able to get a ticket to Athens.

ENDRES, Gustavo (BRA, Player)
The first two sets seemed good with better attacking and blocking. EGY was a well-balanced team with fighting spirit. In the Tokyo round, where we are to have matches against SCG, USA and JPN, we will try our best to win this tournament and qualify for the Olympic Games.

VESELIN, Vukovic (EGY, Head Coach)
Congratulations to BRA. I am satisfied with our good play in the first two sets. It was a good experience for us to compete with the team in such a different level and with such good players. In Tokyo, if we play the same way as we did in the first two sets, we will have chances to win a match, or one or two sets.

ALAYDY, Wael (EGY, Player)
We did the best we could. I am happy to have a good match against one of the best teams in the world like BRA. Our defense was very good in that we displayed our ability in reception and blocking. We hope to continue to play this way in the remaining three matches.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF