Defending champions Al Arabi Club had a miraculous escape and they edged El Jaish in five sets after staving off three match points during the Qatar Cup volleyball on Sunday.
At their home court, Al Arabi were initially two sets down with professionals Dutch Dick Kooy and German Christian Pampel hammering the ball. Then Al Arabi pulled one back only to stare in the face of defeat falling 21-24 in the fourth.
But they launched their gritty comeback and won the set before completing the electrifying 18-25 23-25 31-29 26-24 19-17 victory to go 1-0 up in the best of the three semi-final series.
In another match, runners-up Al Rayyan Club were slow to take off and they posted a superb 24-26 25-19 25-15 25-22 triumph against Police. The winners also lead their series 1-0.
When El Jaish, powered by Pampel and Kooy, won the opening two sets with somewhat ease, it appeared that Al Arabi, who fielded outside hitter Yassner Escobar from Cuba and Philip Maiyo of Kenya, might find it difficult to stage their return.
However, Al Arabi were lifted by Maiyo, Escobar, Thiago da Silva and Ibrahim Mohammed mainly in the third set. They were 23-21 up but could not force their way despite being the first to reach the set point (24-23).
After that they forced four more chances to gain the set, while El Jaish also secured one set point of their own. However, it was the Kenyan Maiyo whose brilliant smashing took Al Arabi close and Ibrahim blocked Pampel to clinch the set.
The army team enjoyed the lead mostly through Al Arabi failed to find the right combination. El Jaish were 24-21 up but at this stage, setter Saif Lemjid served well and El Jaish could not force their way. In the end, Pampel was foiled again and Al Arabi pulled level (2-2).
In the decider, both went neck and neck. El Jaish fell behind later 10-13 but managed to catch up as Nikola Vasic excelled at the net. With Vasic serving into the net, Al Arabi got the first of their five match points. El Jaish, in a frantic finish, did not allow the rivals to get the needed point.
At 17-17, Tarek el Habib sent his service long and Ibrahim read Pampel well and blocked him to script the rip-roaring victory.
Al Arabi coach Ljubomir Travica was quite excited and commented after the match:”It was a very difficult match for everybody. My team played with more focus and handled each point very well. Maybe my players were a bit more motivated to win this match.”
“I think today all the players contributed to the win. This is just the first win and we need one more win to go ahead. It won’t be easy but such matches are good for the Qatar Cup, the Qatar volleyball and fans.”
Middle blocker Ibrahim said,”It was really a tough game. Al Arabi played very strong. All the guys put in their best to win the match. We were down but it didn’t mean the match was over.
“We’ve good experience of playing big matches and I think that helped us come back and fight hard. We’re really happy to have won and gone 1-0 up,” added Ibrahim.
Pampel regretted after the loss:”We had our chances but we didn’t use them. We made some stupid mistakes. We had some bad serves and most of the time, there was no cover when we went for smashes. Hopefully, we’ll solve this in the next match but yeah, it’s bad to lose the match after having such nice chances.”