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2008 Men’s African
Clubs Champions Championship-
Misurata, Libya |
Semifinal
A purely
Egyptian final between Al Ahly and Zamalek
Misurata,
Libya, April 16, 2008- After a very exciting day that
made more than 4000 spectators on their toes Al Ahly and
Zamalek of Egypt secured their tickets to the final of
the 2008 Men’s African Clubs Champions Championship
after their victories in the ssemifinal matches here at
Misurata, Libya on Wednesday. Al Ahly of Egypt defeated
Swehli of libya, while Zamalek defeated Esperance of
Tunisia to make the final a purely egytpian match for
the fourth time of this competition.
Al Ahly will meet their compatriots Zamalek in the
competition final on Friday while Esperance meets Swehly
of Libya in the 3rd and 4th positions.
In the play off for the 5-8 positions GSU of Kenya
rebounded to defeat El Guish of Egypt, while Ahly
Tripoli defeated their home team Ahly Beni Ghazi. GSU
will meet Ahly Tripoli for the 5th and 6th positions
while El Guish plays Ahly Beni Ghazi for the 7th and 8th
positions.
Semifinal
Al Ahly Egypt vs. Swehli
In
front of more than 4000 home crowd, Al Ahly of Egypt
pulled of a valuable victory over Swehli of Libya 3-0
(25-17, 25-22, 25-17) in 71 minutes. Al Ahly qualified
to the final to meet their compatriot Zamalek in the
final leaving Swehli to play Esperance of Tunisia for
the bronze medal
Al Ahly head coach Noor Attia was happy to win the match
and qualify to the final. “We will do our best to win
the title and take the revenge from Zamalek who won the
Egyptian league.” He said
Swehli team manager Adnan Bakbak was satisfied with his
team’s performance although they lost. “We faced a big
experienced team that didn’t allow us to apply our
strategy because they have very experienced blockers”
Said Adnan.
Al Ahly started the match with the full power of the
attacks through the opposite Ahmed Salah in position 2
and the left attackers Hamdy El Safi and Mahmoud Raouf
in position 4 and this made the way easy specially
because Swehli block was not working well. Al Ahly led
8-3 at the FTT and continued their way through the spike
service of Salah and Raouf to continue leading 22-13.
Swehli block much improved to stop Ahly attacks for a
while that allowed them to decrease the point deficit to
25-17 at the end of the set.
The second set showed the usual activity from Swehli
right attacker Mahdi Gara who sent his rockets from
position 2 and succeeded to deceive the block several
times to allow his team to stay near Ahly until the FTT
which ended 8-7 for Ahly. Swehli continued their
arranged backline and used the spikes of Hesham El
Madayer and Mohamed Ben Ouhida to stay near Al Ahly till
the Egyptian team won 25-22 difficultly.
The third set showed less concentration in Swehli
defense while Al Ahly deployed their well known block of
Abdel Latif Othman and Hossam Shaarawy that didn’t allow
the Spikers of Swehli to penetrate. Al Ahly again used
Ahmed Salah in spiking from position 2 and Raouf from
position 4 to win the set 25-17.
Zamalek vs. Esperance
Zamalek
of Egypt secured a final slot after they swept Esperance
of Tunisia 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18) in 89
minutes. Zamalek played a great match specially in the
first and fourth sets and controlled the match through
their solid block of Mohamed Ali and Ali Elian and the
spike service of Saleh Fathy and Mohamed Abdel Monem.
Esperance was affected by the injury of their star
Marouane Fehri in the first set as the performance
showed acute decline after he was substituted. Zamalek
qualified to the final to meet their arc rivals Al Ahly
of Egypt in the final while Esperance plays Swehli of
Libya for the bronze medal.
Esperance used their well known strong spike service of
Hichem Kaabi and Marouane Fehri to disturb Zamalek
reception and this allowed Esperance to have the upper
hand and to reach to 8-5 at the first technical timeout.
Zamalek arranged their defense through the libero Ahmed
Kamal and the block of Mohamed Ali to improve their
attacks through Saleh Fathy and Mohamed Abdel Monem.
Zamalek succeeded to have the upper hand after the
injury of Fehri and the unstoppable spikes of Monem and
Fathy to lead 16-14. Zamalek improved al lot and
succeeded to end the set 25-20.
Zamalek started the second set in the same rhythm and
succeeded to keep the Tunisian defense under pressure
through their potent spikes and disciplined defense to
lead 8-5. Esperance players were irritable in defense
and thus Zamalek continued leading 13-9. Esperance
rebounded through the spikes of Belaid and Chokri Touini
to lead for the first time at technical time out 16-15.
Due to the super performance of Esperance libero Sami
Hamzaoui, the defense became very solid and the attacks
became more concentrated from position 2 and 4.
Esperance shifted the situation to their side until they
won the set 25-23.
The third set showed Esperance playing more aggressive
in attacks and succeeded to use the wing spikers Belaid
and Mehdi Bencheika to lead 11-6. Zamalek started to use
their spike service and that allowed them to come back
and achieve the first draw 14-14 then they finished
16-15 at the STT. The set went point by point thereafter
until Zamalek deployed their solid block of Mohamed Ali
and Ali Elian to lead 24-19 and won the set 25-22 to
lead 2-1 in sets.
The fourth set showed exciting performance from both
teams as Zamalek started to lead but quickly Esperance
returned through their disciplined block till Zamalek
led 8-7 at the FTT. Esperance players fell into many
mistakes to allow Zamalek to lead 16-12 at the STT.
Zamalek continued their superior performance till they
won the set 25-18 and the match 3-1.
Play off 5-8 positions
El Guish vs. GSU
GSU specialized in playing tiebreak did it again and
succeeded to clinch a difficult 3-2 victory in thriller
five set match. GSU rebounded from two sets behind to
win the match 24-26, 22-25, 25-14, 25-22, 16-14 in two
hours of exciting volleyball action. GSU will play for
the 5th and 6th positions while El Guish competes for
the 7th and 8th positions against Ahly.
GSU team started the match more motivated to win and
succeeded to lead from the start 8-5 due to the
efficient spikes of Bernard Musumba and David Kebenfi.
El Guish disturbed block and backline defense allowed
GSU to continue leading 16-11. Suddenly El Guish came
strongly to the match and improved their block to
decrease the point deficit gradually as Mohamed Gabal
and the setter Maged Moustafa did well and El Guish won
the set 26-24.
The second set went the same as GSU improved again their
reception at the beginning of the set and that allowed
them to build up their attacks until they led 16-12. El
Guish regained the same rhythm of the first set as
Emmanuel Friday did well in blocking and fast spiking to
win the set 25-22.
The Kenyan players were superb in the third set
specially Kebenfi, Musumba and Elphas Biwott, while El
Guish performance dropped to the lowest level specially
the backline defense and that allowed the Kenyans to
lead all through till they won the set 25-14.
Again GSU kept their rhythm, while El Guish a little bit
improved their reception and digging and thus the setter
Stephan Nbungu led the skillful combination that was
used well by Elphas and Kebenfi to win the set 25-22 and
bring the match to tiebreak.
The tie break showed early lead for El Guish 3-0 but
quickly GSU team went steadily to lead 5-3. The players
of El Guish fell into many mistakes in spiking and
digging to allow GSU to have the lead until they draw
12-12 when the more motivated GSU players ended the
tiebreak 16-14.
Ahly Tripoli vs. Ahly Beni
Ghazi
Ahly Tripoli of Libya took the revenge from their
compatriots Ahly Beni Ghazi as thay won them 3-1 (30-28,
25-22, 22-25, 25-17) in 106 minutes in front of a big
crown in Ettasadi Hall to win the local Libyan Derby.
Ahly Tripoli plays GSU of Kenya for 5th and 6th
positions, leaving Ahly Beni Ghazi to play for the 7th
and 8th positions against El Guish.
Ranking 9th and 10th positions
FAP
vs. Daim Hamad
FAP of Cameroon finished the competition in the 9th
position following their victory over Daim Hamad of
Sudan who finished in the 10th position 3-1 (25-21,
25-27, 25-21, 25-21) in 84 minutes.
Ranking 11th and 12th positions
VC Force vs. Sonel
Sonel of Cameroon pulled of their competition second
victory over VC Force of RD Congo 3-0 (25-18, 25-23,
25-12) in 54 minutes. Sonel finished the competition in
the 11th position while VC Force ended 12th.
Ranking 5-8 Program Thursday 17 April
5th and 6th positions: GSU (Kenya) vs. Ahly Tripoli
(Libya)
7th and 8th Positions: El Guish (Egypt) vs. Ahly Beni
Ghazi (Libya)
Final Program Friday 18 April
3rd and 4th positions: Swehli (Libya) vs. Esperance
(Tunisia)
1st and 2nd positions: Al Ahly (Egypt) vs. Zamalek
(Egypt)
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