DOHA THE morning has never been more golden and bright for Asian champion Al Arabi Club. The Qatari club infused life into its challenge in the prestigious FIVB World Clubs Men’s Volleyball Championship with a crucial victory against Al Zamalek at the Women’s Sports Hall, Aspire, on Monday.
Back on the court after playing the afternoon match against Zenit Kazan on Sunday, German veteran Christian Pampel pummelled spikes at the vital moments to spearhead Al Arabi a lop-sided 25- 19 25-26 25-20 victory in 68 minutes in the morning. This is the third victory for Al Arabi in the event in four appearance and it has maintained its domination of the African champion from Egypt. In 2010 and 2011, Al Arabi, playing as the host, had beaten Al Ahly by 3-1 and 3-2, respectively.
Nevertheless, in a late match, twice-silver medallist PGE Skra Belchatow from Poland stunned European champion Zenit Kazan in five sets to acquire the pole position in the group B. After both shared the first four sets, Belchatow turned the heat on the Russian team which had a melt-down and lost the match 25-21 23-25 25-17 10-15 in 121 minutes.
This was the second win for the Poland’s team in two matches.
In the tie-break set, Zenit Kazan made crucial service and unforced errors, which enabled the Polish team to suddenly break away from 8-8 to 12-9. Then it was left to Belchatow, the runner-up in 2009 and 2010 to Trentino Diatec, to turn on the screws, which it did efficiently and won the thriller. In the 2009 semi-finals also, Belchatow had beaten the Russian team.
The fate of the Belchatow, Zenit and Arabi would however be decided on the last day of the pool matches on Wednesday when the calculators are likely to be required badly.
The odds appear to be stacked against Arabi, which has to face onfire Belchatow in the must-win match situation. Zenit is to clash with Al Zamalek and it is likely to beat the African champion.
Coming back to the Arabi match, it was the first and third sets in which Pampel drilled most of his lethal smashes to unsettle the Egyptian side, which threatened to go neck and neck. Pampel garnered 17 points, all from his brilliant spiking.
Both the teams were in hot pursuit of each other until 11-10 in the third set. However, Pampel’s smashing ability lifted Al Arabi to 16-13 when he secured the 15th point for his team. Later, he also set up the match point and then Oivanen pulled off a superb block to seal the win.
Finland’s Matti Oivanen turned in a good all-round game for Arabi and earned 13 points – five from smashes, three from blocks and three serves. Mohamed Ibrahim chipped in with nine points, including six from eight spikes.
Reda Haikel was the lone warrior for Zamalek, getting 15 points.
Mohamed Badawy was the second best with eight.
Al Arabi captain Saeed al Jumani was both delighted and relieved by his team’s comeback. “I’m very happy for the victory and it will inspire us to raise our level in the next match. We have to face a very tough team in the form of Belchatow but our coach knows how to deal with each match. I hope we are able to reach the semi-finals for our fans.” Mauro Grasso, the Brazilian coach of Al Arabi, said the team was gelling better as it is getting more time to play together.
“For us, it was a great result.
There is a big difference between the mistakes that we made today and in the previous match.
“We can try our chances to pull off the wins in the next matches.
We’ll try to play as tactical game as we did against Zamalek.
The players are also playing better and we hope to go all out and beat the Polish team in the last match,” added Grasso.
Zenit vs Belchatow In 2009, Belchatow had beaten Zenit in the semi-finals on the way to finish runner-up to Trentino Diatec. But this year, Zenit, returning to the competition as the might European champion and having some players who clinched the gold medal for Russia in the Olympic Games in London in August.
Sollys Nestle takes revenge Sollys Nestle showcased its ambition and preparation to win the women’s crown by handing a fourset defeat to defending champion Rabita Baku of Azerbaijan. The 22- 25 25-20 25-19 25-20 victory was the second successive one for the Brazil team, following its one-sided triumph against Bohai Bank of China, and placed it at the top of the group C
The 111-minute victory also avenged Sollys’ group phase loss to the same rival last year. The Azerbaijan then went on to become the champion, while Sollys grabbed the third place.
Winning start by Fenerbahce Fenerbahce SK Istanbul launched the campaign in the women’s section with a romp against Lancheras de Catano. The 2010 champion took only 69 minutes to beat the Puerto Rico’s team by 25- 17 25-17 25-13. Lancheras can finish second behind Fenerbahce in the group D as the Turkish team is likely to beat Kenya Prisons in its last pool match on Wednesday.
Fenerbahce was sell served by three players in the match – captain Seda Tokatlioglu (16 points), Marianne Steinbrecher (13) and Eda Erdem (10). Tokatlioglu’s 13 smashes boosted Fenerbahce to 37- 29. It also outblocked (11-6) and completely outserved the rival 7-0.
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