Federation Egyptienne de Volleyball

2008 Men’s African Clubs Champions Championship- Misurata, Libya

Final

Zamalek defeats Al Ahly and sets their third cup

Misurata, Libya, April 18, 2008- Zamalek of Egypt achieved the trophy of the 27th African Clubs Champions Championship following their valuable victory over their arc rivals Al Ahly in the final of the competition held here at Misurata, Libya on Friday. The big favorites since the start of the competition played a great match led by the skillful setter Ashraf Aboul Hassan and succeeded to set their third victory in the history of the competition and the first since 1987. Al Ahly, the record holder of the number of trophies of this competition with 8 cups failed to achieve their seventh due to the imbalance happened to many key stars.

Esperance of Tunisia achieved the bronze medal after their win over the organizers Swehli of Libya

After the match Competition Control Committee President Mr. Abdel Hadi Ghzali gave the trophy to Zamalek captain Aboul Hassan with Libya volleyball Federation President Dr. Gamal Zarook, Local Organizing committee president Ayad El Misurati, Referee commission president Hassan Ahmed, CC member Morkinyo and CAVB technical director Mrs. Howyda Mondy.

In a new trend the organizing committee honored the spectators and gave the youngest leader of the supporters a cup for his good image in conducting the disciplined support for all competition teams specially their team Swehli.

Final

Zamalek vs. Al Ahly

Zamalek played their best since 5 years to clinch a 3-1 victory (25-22, 25-22, 25-21, 25-21) over the compatriot Al Ahly in 93 minutes of exciting action. Zamalek led by the skillful setter Ashraf Aboul Hassan and the two left attackers Saleh Fathy and Mohamed Abdel Monem played a great match and succeeded to stop Ahly big attackers through their solid block and efficient backline defense. Ahly complained of the lack of the key star Ahmed Salah’s performance and also the weak defense.

The match started with Zamalek lead 3-0 after three spiking mistakes from Ahmed Salah until Al Ahly returned back with improving the block to come near 5-6. Zamalek blocked well against Salah and Safi to lead 8-5 at the First technical timeout (FTT). Ahly continued their spiking errors and their coach Noor Attia changed the setter Mohamed Abdel Rahman by Hassan Youssef who started the combinations using the efficacy of Hamdy El Safi and Mahmoud Raouf. Zamalek continued leading 16-14 at the STT, but Ahly quickly arranged their block to draw 20-20. Zamalek was better in defense enough to win the set 25-22 after a group of successful block from Mohamed Ali and Mohamed Abdel Monem.

In the second set Zamalek started the same rhythm to lead 5-2 after a group of successful spikes from Abdel Monem, but quickly Ahly rebounded with several ace services from Salah and Hossam to lead 8-7 at the FTT. The efficient setter Hossam led his team with the attacking combinations and aces to lead 16-11. Zamalek improved their block against Ahly spikes to decrease the point deficit to 20-17, and then Salah and Raouf did their best to lead their team to win the set 25-22.

Zamalek started the third set with better performance as the libero Ahmed Kamal did well in the backline defense with Saleh Fathy and Monem to lead 4-2. Ahly started to use the combinations to deceive Zamalek block and Salah made many successful spikes to reach to 8-5 at the FTT. With the proper block Zamalek draw 11-11. Again Zamalek used the disturbance of Ahly to lead 16-14 at the STT. Zamalek continued their dominance to lead 21-18 after a group of spikes from Monem and Fathy. The set became more exciting when Ahly returned back with ace from Salah, but the better team Zamalek won the set 25-21.

The third set started point by point with a big role for the service in both teams till 4-4, when Zalalek deployed their block and used the aces of Mohamed Azab to lead 11-5. Zamalek continued lkeading till 16-10 at the STT. Fathy and Monem again were the stars of the match and led their team to win the set 25-21 and the match 3-1.

Ranking 3-4

Swehli vs. Esperance

Esperance of Tunisia rebounded after losing the first set against Swehli to win 3-1 (19-25, 25-23, 25-17, 25-15). Swehli started the match highly motivated by their spectators

In front of the usual excited spectators Swehli team started the match aggressively as they led 7-6 due to to the efficient spikes of Hani Abdel Wahab and Hesham Elmadayer. Esperance arranged their defense top lead 8-7 at the FTT. Swehli arranged their block against the Tunisian attacks and used the fast attacks through Ahmed Faraj to win the set 25-19.

Esperance head coach Nicola Matsejevic was satisfied with his team’s performance in this match but not with final result of winning the bronze medal. “I’m happy to have young players gaining the experience in this competition and I think they will add a lot to our team in future like Karim Brini and Hamza Reeni,” Said Nicola. “I think we missed two critical players Marouane Fehri and Khalid Belaid and we were affected by their absence until the young players entered the match. As a whole I’m not satisfied to win the bronze medal but as we added those young players I’m satisfied with the overall results.” He added.

Swehli Manager Adnan Bakbak expressed his happiness to finish between the final four teams for the first time in the history of Libyan clubs. “We missed today Mahdi Gara who is a key star of our team, but we played well in the first and second sets. When we lost the second set we couldn’t return back again to the match.” He added.

Esperance controlled the net action completely at the beginning of the secons set due to the efficient spikes of Hichem Kaabi and Karim Brini to lead 6-0 before Swehli rebounded through the better reception and defense to draw 7-7. Again Esperance used the disturbed Swehli defense to reach to 16-11 at the STT. Swehli tried to regain the rhythm and to decrease the points deficit as the setter Ibrahim Obied led the fast attacks through the center Faraj and Abdel Wahab and succeded to reach to 23-22 before Esperance used the reception mistakes to win the set narrowly 25-23.

The third set showed again more concentration from Swehli players and started to use the right attacker Elmadayer and also the center Abdel Wahab to lead 5-2 and 8-7 until the Tunisian opposite Kaabi started to work properly to allow his team to lead 16-12, before they increase the the point defict to 21-14. The frequent reception mistakes from Swehli allowed Esperance to win the set 25-17.

The Libyan team performance dropped due to lack of concentration and bad reception so Esperance applied their strategy of making the combination which was used well by Kaabi, Karim Brini and Stankovic. Esperance led all through set widely until they reach to 20-12. The better Tunisia team made their way easily to win the set 25-15 and the match 3-1.