You are here: Home

China outclass Saudi Arabia 3-0 in Asiad men's volleyball

: 0 Comments Print E-mail Xinhua, November 20, 2010

Adjust font size:

Under great pressure, China produced an impressive performance to outgun Saudi Arabia 3-0 here on Friday in the 2010 Asian Games men's volleyball top-eight play-off.

Inspired by the deafening cheers of more than 3,000 Chinese fans, the host beat Saudi Arabia 25-20, 25-15, 25-17 for the fourth victory in the tournament.

"We kept cool throughout the match, especially in the first set when we fell behind," said Chinese coach Zhou Jian'an, "That's the key to today's victory, we were not good at this points in the previous matches."

Cui Jianjun scored 13 points for China to lead the game, while Yuan Zhi added 10.

Doha Asiad bronze medallist Saudi Arabia started the game greatly as they blocked China's spiking three times to lead at 3-0. Zhou was forced to call a time out after Saudi Arabia jumped to 11-6 ahead, but Saudi Arabia didn't let any chance slip from their hands and led the game to 14-11.

But then the whole thing had a U-turn as China launched a 4-1 run to tie the game at 15-15. Saudi Arabia's top scorer Ahmaed Albakhet had a high-flying spike from left side of the net to lead the score again at 17-15, but only saw China answered with another 4-0 run.

Trailing at 19-21, Albakhet tried to claw one point back, but China then won four points in a row to capture the set.

Albakhet contributed 10 point to lead the Saudi Arabia team.

With one set in hand, China opened the second set with a 7-5 lead and never looked back.

China will clash with Iran on Saturday while Saudi Arabia to face Thailand.

"Iran is a strong team, " said Zhou, "but if we did as good as today, we will have chances to beat them."

Earlier on Friday, defending champion South Korea extended their winning streak to four games as they defeated Qatar in straight sets 25-16, 25-22, 25-18.

Qatar's top scorer Ali Hamid Yagoub, suffering from a rib injury, could not find his scoring groove and miss several scoring chances.

Losing the first set, Qatar came back in the second set at took an early lead until Chigbo John's mistake allowed South Korea to level at 12-12. Things changed after the draw as South Korea launched a 3-0 run to lead the game and took the set 25-22.

The third set was much easier for South Korea as they quickly took the upper hand 8-3 at the first time-out. Kim Yo-Han, who came from bench in the last set, ensured South Korea's winning momentum and settled the third set at 25-18.

Also on Friday, Japan came back from two sets down to draw the game against India 2-2, but they could not perform a miracle and lost the deciding fifth set. It took India nearly two hours to win the game at 25-20, 25-19, 21-25, 26-28, 15-13.