Lausanne, Switzerland, June 5, 2010 – Both Egypt and Germany, who won promotion to the 2010 World League last year, recorded victories in their first matches on Saturday joining Cuba, the Netherlands, Brazil, Russia, France, Egypt and Germany who all won on the second day of the FIVB’s premier annual event for men.
Egypt secured a 3-2 (25-23, 24-26, 16-25, 25-20, 13-15) victory over Finland, their first ever win over Finland having only played them six times, with the last matches being held in 1958, with Ahmed Abdelhay topping the scoring with 21 points while Germany fought back from a set down to stun Poland 3-1 (23-25; 25-18, 25-22; 25-22) in Stuttgart.
"Egypt showed us that attitude is what makes you win or lose matches,” Finland coach Mauro Berruto:said. “We are sorry about our own performance. We played badly in all areas including attitude."
Meanwhile, more than 10,000 fans turned out to see Cuba beat Argentina at home in Havana 3-1 (25-23, 25-20, 21-25, 25-18) with the visitors struggling with their serving and reception throughout the encounter while the Netherlands won their first match against Korea with a hard-fought 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-20) win in Seoul. Despite a solid effort from the hosts, the Dutch height was too much as they put together a number of strong spikes.
Brazil added to their Friday night win over Bulgaria by beating the European side again 3-2 (24-26, 25-19, 25-15, 22-25, 15-9) in a thriller. Brazilian wing-spiker Murilo Endres added to his sound performance on Friday night by scoring 18 points while Bulgarian wing-spiker Todor Aleksiev scored 16 points.
Elsewhere Russia beat USA for the second successive time, easily seeing off the Americans 3-1 (25-14, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21) in Ekaterinburg. Russian Maxim Mikhailov proved to be the difference between the two sides, scoring 23 points despite a passionate fight from the Olympic champions and world No. 2.
Italy held off France in five stern sets 3-2 (25-22, 25-23, 29-31, 24-26, 15-10) in Modena. Alessandro Fei and libero Davide Marra were the difference between the sides as both put on brilliant individual displays.
The FIVB World League continues on Sunday with the final matches of Week 1 seeing Cuba host Argentina, Korea entertain the Netherlands, Germany play Poland, Finland host Egypt and Serbia take on China.
World League Week 1 remaining matches
Match Date GMT Time City
CUB-ARG 6/06/2010 00:40 La Habana
KOR-NED 6/06/2010 05:00 Suwon
GER-POL 6/06/2010 13:00 Stuttgart
FIN-EGY 6/06/2010 13:00 Tampere
SRB-CHN 6/06/2010 18:15 Beograd
Argentina
Brazil
Bulgaria
China
Cuba
Egypt
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Korea
Netherlands
Poland
Russia
Serbia
USA
