Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2016 - Two teams that started the men’s volleyball tournament at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with losses will face each other on the second competition day. In a Pool B fixture at the Maracanazihno on Tuesday, Cuba and Egypt will be battling for their first victory.
On Sunday, the young Cuban squad managed to win one set against powerful Russia, but ended up with a 1-3 (17-25, 19-25, 25-22, 18-25) defeat. Osniel Cecilio Rendon Gonzalez tallied 20 points to become the best scorer of that match.
“I want to commend Cuba’s performance,” said Russia’s veteran player Sergey Tetyukhin after the game. “Their young players stepped up and gave us a great challenge.”
Seemingly, the Cubans face a less challenging opponent for their second game. Egypt lost to Poland by 0-3 (18-25, 20-25, 17-25) on Sunday with Mohamed Abou leading the team’s scorers with 9 points, including two winning blocks and two aces.
The African squad suffered further damages with Ahmed El Ktob’s ankle injury. “We have Ahmed Saleh (Abdelhay), but he is also not ready because he got injured,” commented Egypt’s coach Sherif Elshemerly. “So we just have to fight for the next match...”
“We need to take one game at a time, step by step,” added captain Ashraf Abouelhassan.