Gearing up for World League – Team Egypt

As I mentioned in a recent post, the FIVB World League, international men’s volleyball’s premier tournament in odd-numbered years* is fast approaching. I plan to cover it in as great a depth as possible, and that starts with offering context. It’s still a few months before the tournament is to begin, but with 18 teams to run down, it’s best to get started as soon as possible. It’s already too late to just do one a week, but that will roughly speaking be my schedule.

*The tournament still takes place in even-numbered years, but it’s arguably superseded by the Olympics or the world championships, which themselves take place in alternate even-numbered years (i.e. never the same year — the next world championships are in 2014).

This is the first World League tournament with 18 teams, so I’ll start my rundowns with the two wildcards appointed by the FIVB, then the two qualifiers, then the 14 classified teams from last year. I’ll do similarly for the women’s Grand Prix later this year. Specifically, the order of these rundowns will be:

Egypt
Japan
Iran
Netherlands
South Korea
Finland
Canada
Italy
Argentina
Serbia
Russia
France
Brazil
Germany
Bulgaria
Cuba
USA
Poland

So let’s get underway.

Egypt are the lone CAVB representative in this year’s World League, but that gives the African federation one more than they had in the 2012 tournament. They played one of the qualifier matchups to earn their way in, matching up with Iran for a chance to displace one of last year’s bottom two, but they weren’t very competitive in that two-leg qualifier. They won just one set in the two-leg qualifier, though they were competitive in the first and more meaningful of the two matches despite being swept.

Egypt are without a doubt CAVB’s most dominant side, though in terms of worldwide competition that probably does not mean a whole lot. They are the four-time defending African champions, and have not lost a match in that biannual tournament since 2007. Their international record in tournaments involving nations outside their home continent is a lot more spotty, though. Looks like they have only medalled in one such tournament, the 2005 Mediterranean Games, an event itself pretty limited in scope.

They’ve got an established track-record of participation at huge international events, including at the last world championships (I freely acknowledge that this is a thinly-veiled commercial for their gear supplier, but it’s still an interesting watch) and the Beijing Olympics. They did not play at last summer’s London Olympics, but they lost only in the final qualification match to Bulgaria, the team who wound up finishing 4th. Egypt’s current world ranking is 12th, having surpassed Tunisia when the last rankings were published. This actually makes them the highest-ranked team in their pool, and ranks them ahead of Iran and France from the other pools as well. Still, they’ve never attained a single-digit final placing at the Olympics or the World Championships, or the World League for that matter. They’ve played in four of the last seven tournaments, finishing 13th three times and 14th in their last appearance in 2010.

About the only player on their roster with European experience is setter Ahmed Abdallah, who’s seen time with clubs in Italy. He’s renowned as one of the best setters, servers, and defenders in African volleyball. Not sure what Egypt’s offensive system will be, as the floor captain is noted as fellow setter Ashraf Abouelhassan, easily the team’s elder statesman at 37. Could be they run something like a 6-2, though that’s not a very common formation in men’s volleyball at any level. Another player to take note of is pin hitter Ahmed Abdelhay Salah, who was called aside for an interview in that video. He’s been representing his country ever since the 2003 All-Africa Games, a freshfaced 20-year old as part of their gold medal-winning squad at that event. Anytime Egypt have made a major international tournament since then, it’s been Salah who’s provided backbone-of-the-offense scoring. Surprisingly, it doesn’t look like he’s ever taken his game to the professional level in Europe or Asia, and that’s where the money is. Must be other reasons.

So are we looking at a winner?

It would be historic if it were to happen. Egypt have finished near the bottom (though never at the very bottom) in each of their previous World League appearances, and only have hardware from events where World League nations either can’t come or don’t bring their A-team.  They’ve got….ehh….a tiny shot to come out of their pool. Pools A and B will send three teams through to the final, but Pool C, where we find Egypt, graduates just one. They’ll have their hands full with pretty well everyone. Frankly it would be historic for Egypt just to make it that far, so if they’re being realistic, that’s what they should harbor as a goal.

I expect they’ll be a team that’s a lot of fun to watch. Teams who “aren’t supposed to be there” (and indeed, it took a special FIVB exemption for Egypt to be in the tournament) have a tendency to just let it all fly and play in the moment. You saw it this year with the Michigan Wolverines’ women’s team in the NCAA tournament. When you’ve got nothing to lose — just see what happens! And that’s where Team Egypt really are in advance of this year’s World League.