Bitok disappointed by poor show in Japan

By Oscar Pilipili and FIVB

Kenyan coach Paul Bitok is disappointed by the unexpected poor performance of his team against South Korea in 2011 FIVB World Cup match they lost 0-3 (21-25, 15-25, 14-25 at Toyama Gymnasium in Japan.

Bitok told a post-match press conference that he expected his team to play much better against 13th ranked South Korea especially after putting up impressive shows against big teams like Serbia and the USA in previous matches.

He said: " After playing well against some of the big teams, today I’m a bit disappointed because we expected to win against Korea or at least pick up two sets."

"We made many mistakes and Korea served well and we couldn’t receive. We didn’t serve so well today although some individual players did well," he said.

Bitok observed that the morale of Kenya’s players was down in their match against Korea and hope it will not happen in next matches.

Kenya captain Bracksides Agala concurred with Bitok that they did not play well against South Korea as she said: "Today we didn’t play a good game and that’s why we lost. We could have played better."

Kenya takes a rest on Thursday as they move to Sapporo where they play round three matches against Dominican Republic on Friday, Argentine (Saturday) and fellow Africans Algeria on Sunday. The matches are lined up at Okayama Momotaro Arena. Like Kenya, Algeria who are the second African team in the competition, are yet to record a victory in the 12-team tournament.

They started second round of the tournament on disastrously going down 0-3 (8-25, 10-25, 17-25) against hosts Japan in a speedy 64 minutes match that never saw the home team trail a point. Leading the way for Japan, who beat Algeria in straight sets in their only previous encounter at last year’s World Championship, on the day was Saori Sakoda with 21, and Maiko Kano provided a supporting effort with nine.

The young Algerian side did not have much luck on the day, with Melinda Raissa Hennaoui and Lydia Oulmou both tallying six points.

Meanwhile Japan’s superstar Saori Kimura was picking off the corners with surgical precision from the left side.

Africa has one official slot at the World Cup, which was taken by Kenya as Africa’s champions.