Iraq South Gas Club sports vs Philippines PLDT Home Tvolution in the Asian men’s Club Volleyball Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena.
MANILA, Philippines — Iraq South Gas exploited the Philippines’ height disadvantage in the 25-22, 25-19, 25-18 drubbing of the Filipinos on Thursday in the Asian Men’s Volleyball Club Championships at Mall of Asia Arena.
With three towering national team players from Europe, the Iraqis had a flawless showing on both ends to deal the Power Pinoys their first loss in the pool A action.
“We have too much height for Filipino. Philippines is a good team, but no height,” said head coach Khalaf Abdul Sa Alaa in the post-match presser.
The 6-foot-6 Bulgarian Aleksandaron Amaniev Metodi finished with 15 points, while the 6-foot-5 Hungarian Baroti Arpaddelivered nine of his 12 points on kills in Iraq’s debut.
The Iraqis, who featured seven members from the Iraq national team, were just ferocious on defense and on their assaults as they repeatedly pounced on Filipinos’ poor reception and error-filled game.
After getting the game-deciding second set, Iraq continued its domination in the third set with a 9-1 lead and stretched that to as many as 10 points, 19-9.
“We had so much unforced errors, especially on our service. It’s hard to win when you have those kinds of errors,” said Power Pinoys mentor Francis Vicente.
The Filipinos even got a taste of the lead, 15-12 in the first set, but the surplus of unforced miscues marked the start of their collapse which delayed their entry to the quarterfinals.
A convincing, straight-set win by Iran over Mongolia on Saturday will formalize the Power Pinoys’ entry to the next round.
Only Alnakran Abdilla, a standout from La Salle-Dasmariñas, finished in double digits with 11 points, all but one from kills, while Jayson Ramos had nine. Australian Cedric Legrand, who keyed in the Philippines’ late comeback in the third, added seven points.
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