El Jaish capped their comeback into the Qatar Cup Volleyball Championship with a pulsating 2-1 playoff series victory against mighty Al Arabi Club at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiya Arena on Tuesday.
The army team began the third and deciding match against 15-time winners solidly and were 2-0 ahead. But Al Arabi fought back and forced the tie-break set after winning the next two sets.
El Jaish hit the front at the crucial stage with a few brilliant blocks, went on to win the fifth set and the seal the fate of the rivals with an exciting 25-22 25-14 19-25 25-27 15-10 score line in one hour and 57 minutes.
On April 28, El Jaish, who had beaten Al Arabi Club to claim the QVA Cup earlier in the season, will clash with Al Rayyan Club, another big team, who have emerged winners on eight occasions in 20 finals.
This is the second final for El Jaish, who had lost to Al Arabi Club in the 2013-14 season when the competition’s name was changed from the Heir Apparent’s Cup to the Qatar Cup.
Al Arabi had clinched the opening playoff 3-0. But the army side, who have contracted one of the best middle blockers in the world in Robertlandy Simon and Oreol Camejo, turned the heat on the opponents and tied the series with a 3-2 win on Sunday.
Simon notched up 28 points, Camejo garnered 22, while Bojan netted 9 to provide crucial support to his professional teammates. Setter Milos Stevanovic posted five.
Othman Abdulwahid effected some thrilling blocks, especially in the fifth set, off both Al Arabi Club professionals, Italian Olympian Ivan Zaystsev and Brazilian Yoandry Leal Hidalgo, to enable El Jaish to fashion the victory.
Zaytsev and Hidalgo worked brilliantly in tandem and they clinched the bulk of their team’s points. Zaystev collected 28, while Hidalgo accounted for 23. Jorge Gonzalez Garcia could manage only 6, while he was expected to contribute more.
After both shared the first four sets, Al Arabi got two points up at the change-over (8-6) in the fifth. Then they were 9-7 ahead before El Jaish bounced back when Hidalgo’s touch-out attempt proved futile (9-9). Hidalgo’s two smashes were defended and Simon then drilled the winner to get his team up.
Suddenly, El Jaish raced to 13-9 with Zaytsev spiking out, Camejo blocking Hidalgo and Abdulwalid foiling Zaytsev. Setter Seiffedine Elmajid netted his serve, leaving El Jaish with four match points. El Jaish completed the throbbing victory with Hidalgo’s drop going into the net.
After the victory, Simon said, “We had done our home work well. I think we have fantastic guys and all played like a strong family. People think that we’ve nothing. But we showed what we can do. This made our big victory possible.
“If we continue to play the way we played tonight, we can win any match. We’ll try to win against Al Rayyan as well. Al Rayyan are also a good side. We’ll have to do our best again and we’ll try to do it whether it is attack, defence or block,” added Simon.
El Jaish setter Stevanovic commented, “It was really a big victory for us tonight. We strongly believed that if we could play well, we could reach the final. This was what was in our mind when we played the second playoff.
“We continued to work hard and we managed to beat Al Arabi. We controlled the match in the first two sets. Honestly, our block was quite amazing. We stopped Ivan and Jorge at the right time and then Al Arabi could not do much,” added the El Jaish player.
Al Arabi’s star player Zaystev said, “I think we were just unlucky not to finish the match after leading 8-6 in the tie-break and our recovery. I was really enjoying this type of match. Everybody was trying to give his best but unfortunately it was not enough.
“It will be a good lesson for us. Hopefully, we’ll learn from this and try to improve during the Emir’s Cup, which is the biggest contest in Qatar. All the players are experienced and intelligent enough and they know what they’ve to do. We were really close (to victory),” added the Italian.
النتائج
El Jaish beat Al Arabi Club 3-2 (25-22 25-14 19-25 25-27 15-10) in one hour & 57 minutes
April 28: (final match)
At 6:30 pm – Al Rayyan Club vs El Jaish