Nothing seemed to forebode such an outcome, when the home side dominated on the court during the first sets on the way to landslide results, but things changed from the third set on as the world’s number 19 team Egypt fought on to an amazing turnaround. Opposite Reda Haikal was on fire as the Africans took the upper hand in sets three and four. Then 22-year-old outside Abdelrahman took charge in the tie-breaker to lead the team to a sensational victory. It was the second day in a row that Japan allowed their opponents a comeback from two sets down, but while they managed to stop Finland in the fifth set on Saturday, there was no stopping Egypt on Sunday.
Haikal finished with 20 points for the winners, including two kill blocks. Middle blocker Mohamed Masoud excelled with four kill blocks towards an 11-point total, while Eissa added another 10 points, all in attack, including the match winner. Japanese stars Yuki Ishikawa and Yuji Nishida shared the match top scorer honours with exactly the same record of 24 points each, including two aces and a block. Ran Takahashi finished with 16 points to his name.
“Today was very different, the ‘most different’ match in my whole life! It was great! A night for history!” Haikal told Volleyball World. “It wasn’t that easy. It was hard emotionally and physically. You are playing against a very big team, Japan, in Japan, in front of ten thousand people watching. So I’m really happy and very proud of this good job done by the team and the staff. It was a very big step tonight towards the Olympics in Paris, which is great, and I hope we can continue this way. When you have big dreams and big goals, you never give up.”
