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2008 Men’s African
Clubs Champions Championship-
Misurata, Libya |
Day 2
GSU, Swehli,
Esperance and three Egyptian teams qualified to
quarterfinals
Misurata,
Libya, April 11, 2008- Six teams secured their tickets
to the quarterfinals of the 2008 Men’s African Clubs
Champions Championship after the second day of the
preliminary round held at Misurata, Libya on Friday
leaving only two slots in the third and final day of the
preliminary round to be held on Saturday. The teams
already qualified are Swehli of Libya, and Zamalek of
Egypt in Pool A, El Guish of Egypt in Pool B, Esperance
of Tunisia and Al Ahly of Egypt in Pool C and GSU of
Kenya in Pool D.
The last two tickets in the quarters will be determined
in two matches of the final day when Ahly Beni Ghazi
meets Daim Hamad of Sudan in pool B to determine one
slot and Ahly Tripoli plays FAP of Cameroon in Pool D to
determine the last ticket.
The matches were attended by CAVB President Dr. Amr
Elwani, Local Organizing committee president Ayad El
Misurati, Control Committee President Abdelhadi Ghzali,
Referee commission president Hassan Ahmed and CAVB
technical director Mrs. Howyda Mondy.
Ahly Tripoli vs. GSU
GSU
of Kenya proved their consistency and succeeded to come
from one set behind 1-2 to win a thriller five set match
3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-20, 26-24, 15-11) in two hours
showing all the volleyball skills. GSU players and their
coach Moses Epoloto kept their performance and spirit
steady all through the match and that allowed them to
return back in the critical points and win the
competition most exciting match till now. GSU secured a
quarterfinal slot as they improved their record in Pool
D top 2-0, while Ahly Tripoli dropped to 0-1.
Ahly Tripoli began the match aided by their home
spectators and succeeded to have the lead through the
solid block of Saad Oussama and Salim Majdi who
succeeded to stop many of GSU attacks. GSU started to
increase the attacking strategy through the well known
right attacker David Kebenfi and the left attacker
Bernard Musumba and Elphas Biwott. After Ahly led 8-6,
GSU was the dominant side until they got the lead 18-16,
then at the end of the set 25-23.
The second set was more exciting as Ahly team improved
their backline defense through the libero Youssef El
Grour and also the block through Saad Ossama and Majdi
so they led 8-5 at the FTT. Thereafter GSU came to the
match through the powerful hits of Biwott and Kebenfi
and made it difficult for the opponent to go through
easily, so Ahly won the set 25-23 and leveled the score
to 1-1.
The home team became more motivated to win and improved
their service and defense to penetrate regularly GSU
defense and thus they kept leading all through the set
until they won 25-20 comfortably.
The fourth set was the most exciting in the match and
showed thriller performance from both sides starting
from the first point. Ahly led 8-6, and continued
leading till 14-12 when GSU coach made some
substitutions that allowed him to control the defense
and also the net action through the middle blockers
David Opiyo and Dunson Tali and they led for the first
time 15-14. The match went point by point till Ahly led
23-21. GSU players did their best to control the last
points and won 26-24 to extend the match to tiebreak.
In the tiebreak GSU players were more concentrating
specially in reception while Ahly players fell in many
reception and digging mistakes to allow the Kenyan team
to lead 8-6 at the court change. GSU consistence led to
more improvement in spiking and blocking and they
succeeded to win the set 15-11 and the fantastic match
3-2.
Daim Hamad vs. El Guish
Al
Guish of Egypt achieved their second victory in a row
over Daim Hamad of Sudan 3-0 (25-10, 25-21, 25-17) in 60
minutes. El Guish head coach Foad Abdel Salam played
with most of the list of players to give them the
experience before the more critical matches in the
second round. With this victory El Guish improved their
record to 2-0 and secured a quarterfinal ticket, while
Daim Hamad became 0-1.
The match went in the same rhythm as El Guish used the
strong wing spikers Islam Awad and Radwan as well as the
professional Nathan of Cameroon. With the efficient
service and potent spikes Daim Hamad couldn’t withstand
except in the second set when they came near 25-21.
The head coach Abdel Salam was happy with both the
victory and the qualification to the second round which
will be a great push to the team to repeat their
achievement in the last competition when they ended in
the second position in their first participation. “We
need now to concentrate on the next round to achieve our
goals of reaching the final.” He said.
Esperence vs. Sonel
Although
they lost two players Hosni Karamosli and Salim Chekili
due to ineligibility as a decision taken by the
Competition control committee, Esperance of Tunisia
swept Sonel of Cameroon easily in straight sets 3-0
(25-15, 25-14, 25-9) in 48 minutes. Esperance raised
their record to 2-0 and secured a Quarterfinal vacancy.
Sonel dropped to 0-2 and eliminated to play for 9-12
positions.
Esperance started the match with the main line up and as
usual Hichem Kaabi played the main role in spiking from
position 2. Although Sonel team tried to use the fast
attacks from position 3 through the center Victor Bone,
the Tunisian team dealt with this through their
blockers, the Serbian Novac Stankovic and Skander Ben
Tara and won the set 25-15.
The second set showed weaker defense from Sonel and
Esperance succeeded to use the strong spike service to
prevent the Cameroon team from using their strong
attackers and won the set 25-14. The third set was
faster than expected and ended 25-9 due to the spike
services that disturbed Sonel defense.
Al Ahly Egypt vs. Al Saggana
Al Ahly of Egypt set their second victory over Al
Saggana of Sudan 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-16, 25-21) in 78
minutes. After Al Ahly won the first set the head coach
Noor Eddine Attia made a big change in the fielded
players so they lost the second set before rebounding
back to win two successive sets. Although Al Ahly won
their second match and secured a quarterfinal position
the head coach with not happy with the performance which
was too low for the coming important matches. Al Ahly
improved their record to 2-0 in pool C and secured one
of the semifinal vacancies of this pool with Esperance.
Both teams will meet together today for the first and
second positions of the pool. Al Saggana played a very
good match specially in the second set when their block
was arranged against Ahly attacks but they lost their
second match to drop to 0-2 and lose any hope of
qualification to quarterfinal.
Zamalek vs. VC Force
In their first match Zamalek used most of the
substitutes to clinch an easy victory over VC Force of
RD Congo 3-0 (25-8 25-17, 25-15). Zamalek made their
record 1-0 after their match to come at the top of the
pool with Swehli, while VC Force dropped to 0-2. Both
Zamalek and Swehli secured the two slots of the pool in
the quarterfinal.
Zamalek Head coach Ahmed Moustafa played with 11 players
of his list to give the chance to all of his squad and
succeeded tio apply his attacking strategy that allow
him to win the match with the least effort. Although VC
Force players did their best in the match, but their bad
reception and block didn’t allow them to enter the
match. As usual the best player in Egypt this season
Mohamed Abdel Moneim was the match star and succeeded
with his unstoppable hits to end the situations by the
net.
Day 3 Program
14:00: Al Saggana (Sudan) vs. Sonel (Cameroon) Hall 1
16:00 Ahly Beni Ghazi (Libya) vs. Sonel (Cameroon) Hall1
18:00: Esperance (Tunisia) vs. Al Ahly (Egypt) Hall 1
18:00 FAP (Cameroon) vs. Ahly Tripoli (Libya) Hall 2
20:00: Swehli (Libya) vs. Zamalek (Egypt) Hall 1
Photo caption
Mohamed El Khaddafe and CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani
with Swehli team
Elphas of GSU spiking against Ahli Tripoli
GSU Players celebrate the victory
Zamalek Team (Egypt)
VC Force team (Congo)
Ahly Tripoli Team (Libya)
Esperance team (Tunisia)
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