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Mouloudia set the biggest
surprise and win the defending champions
 Niamey,
Niger April 26, 2007-: Mouloudia of Algeria set the biggest
competition surprise when they clinched a big victory over the
defending champions Al Ahly of Egypt in the semifinal of the
twenty sixth Men’s Volleyball African Clubs Champions
Championship here at Palais des Sports hall in Niamey, Niger to
qualify for the final for the first time since more than ten
years. Mouloudia plays El Guish of Egypt in the final of the
competition on Friday following the victory of the latter over
GSU of Kenya in the other semifinal on Thursday. Ahly plays GSU
of Kenya for the Bronze medal.
In the ranking positions Ahly of Libya and FAP of Cameroon
achieved considerable victories over Port of Cameroon and
University of Rwanda respectively to play for the fifth and
seventh positions leaving the losers to play for the 7 and 8
positions.
The competition semifinal was attended by big number of local
crowd who were excited by the high performance of all the teams
and also the Control Committee President Mr. Baba Sy, SOC
delegates Mr. Okba Gougam and Mr. Morakinyo, Referee Delegate
Mr. Majeed Djirad, and Niger Volleyball Federation President Mr.
Amada Sidiyane.
 Al
Ahly playing to win their ninth title in this competition made a
lot of reception and service mistakes to lose their thriller
match against Mouloudia of Algeria who played their best match
in the competition. The Algerian champions did all the positive
volleyball skills to pick the big victory 3-1 (26-24, 25-20,
18-25, 25-23) in 90 minutes. Al Ahly started the match using the
fast attacks to Ahmed Salah and Hosam Shaarawy and led all
through the first set until they reached to 23-20 when the
Algerian team used the efficient spike service of Valery and Ali
Kerboua to win the critical set 26-24. The second set showed
many reception mistakes for Al Ahly as well as in service as
they lost 7 points of missed services, and that allowed the
Algerian team to control the match and use all their stars
specially the setter Hassan Sola and the Left attacker Rachid
Ben Hallal to bring a rapid victory of the set 25-20. Al Ahly
came to the match in the third set and won 25-18 after a group
of spikes from the right attacker Ahmed Salah and some blocks of
Hosam Shaarawy and Mohamed E Sayed. Again Mouloudia used their
spike service to disturb Ahly defense and used their strong
attackers Kerboua and Rafik to win the set 25-23 and the
match3-1.
Mouloudia head coach Karimo Bernaoui was cheered to defeat the
best African team in the last five years and said that he used
the service to disturb Ahly because if they receives well they
could do anything with their efficient attacks. “We succeeded to
put them under pressure of our service to be added to the
pressure of the match as the defending champions while we played
free of any stress so we maintained our performance steady all
through the match till we achieved the big victory. We have now
to concentrate on the final which will be tough against another
Egyptian team.” Bernaoui added.
Ahly head Coach Nour Attia referred the defeat to the bad
reception and the service mistakes. “I don’t know what happened
today to lose in this way but simply it was not our day.” Said
Attia.
El Guish came twice from one set behind to win another thriller
five set match 3-2 (18-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-14, 15-9) over the
dark horses of the competition GSU of Kenya who played one of
their best matches before their performance declined acutely
after leading 2-1 in sets.
 The
match started by a big concentration form the Kenyan team who
arranged their blocks of Wakoli Tali and David Opiyo in front of
the strong Guish spikers to lead all through the first set 8-5
and 16-10. They used the bad reception of the Egyptian team to
continue their dominance and to end the set widely 25-18. The
second set showed improvement in Guish reception so they
arranged their combinations using the tall centers Emmanuel and
Ibrahim Rashwan and the strong spikes of the opposite Mohamed
Gabal to win the set narrowly 25-23 to hold the result to 1-1 in
sets. The third set featured again the superior performance of
the Kenyan left attackers Elphas Biwott and Bernard Musumba, so
they penetrated the broken block of Guish. They used also the
frequent mistakes of the Egyptian team in service and spikes to
end the thriller set 26-24. El Guish led completely in the
fourth set as they improved their block against the Kenyan
attacks and that allowed them to control the set specially after
they led 8-2 by the first technical time out. The Kenyan coach
made many substitutions to save the set but their opponent
reached their peak motivations to win the set widely 25-14 and
held the match to tie break. In the tie break EL Guish started
the set aggressively using their efficient combinations and led
2-0 then 4-2 but they fell in some service mistakes that made
the Kenyans to come near at the change of the court 8-6. The
Egyptian players reached to a peak of motivation to win the set
15-9 and the match 3-2.
“I’m happy to qualify to the final in our first participation in
this competition.” Said Guish Head coach Foad Abdel Salam after
the match. “We managed the mistakes of the first and third sets
quickly so we could won the difficult match. We give this
victory to the president of our club General Moustafa Kamel.” He
added.
GSU head coach Moses Epoloto was happy with his team performance
in the match and said that it is another step towards the first
Kenyan title in Men’s volleyball competitions. He promised to
win the cup next year and chooses his efficient attacker Elphas
as the match star.
 In
the semifinal of 5-8 positions Ahly of Libya and FAP of Cameroon
clinched tough victories over Port of Cameroon and University of
Rwanda respectively. The winners Ahly and FAP play on Friday for
the fifth and sixth positions while the losers Port and
University meet for the seventh and eighth. Ahly of Libya
rebounded from two sets behind to pull of a difficult 3-2
victory in 110 minutes. Port Douala dominated the first two sets
through the strong spikes of the opposite player Nathan
Wounembaina and the wing spiker Omaro Fadwa. Al Ahly of Libya
returned back to the match on time as their setter Johan
Yossifiny played a great role in his team combinations which
allowed the efficient left attackers John Adamu and Foad El
Maarouq to do good job which allowed the Libyan team to win the
third set narrowly before winning the fourth set with the higher
motivations of the players. In the tie break although Port team
led 8-6 at the shift time, Ahly scored 9 points against only two
points for Port to win the set 15-10.
The more skilful and powerful FAP team of Cameroon clinched a
straight sets victory over University of Rwanda (25-19, 25-22,
25-23) in 64 minutes. The Cameroon team used their efficient
spikers Robert Samou and Makoon Abbas to clinch the victory. The
Rwandan team came to the match only in the third set when they
came near through the block of Jean Uwamahoro but they failed to
maintain.
The ranking positions showed more exciting volleyball then
expected in all the matches. Tiko of Madagascar continued their
high performance they showed in the first round and clinched a
respectful victory over Inter Club of Congo Brazzaville 3-0
(25-23, 25-18, 25-18) in 54 minutes. Tiko end the competition in
the ninth position leaving Inter in the tenth. The winner didn’t
allow their opponent to go through the match by their strong
service and disciplined backline defense. On the other hand they
had efficient spikes from Eric and Jose aided by the skillful
setting from Mikela.
University Calavi of Benin needed 99 minutes to win their match
against the organizer ASVB of Niger after an interesting five
set match (25-18, 21-25, 19-25, 25-22, 15-13). Calavi was ranked
11th leaving the Niger champions in the 12th position. After
Calavi won the first set with their strong attacks in 18
minutes, ASVB aided by the home crowd succeeded to win 2
successive sets when they used their efficient star Amadou
Alichina to lead 2-1 in sets and became near their competition
first victory but Calavi returned back to the match to win the
fourth set and extend the match to tie break. Benin team
succeeded to win the tie break for their better organization and
deprived the organizers from any victory in the competition.
Although it was a purely Ethiopian clash, it was the longest
match in the competition when Cement defeated their compatriots
Defense after a thriller five setter 3-2 (21-25, 25-19, 26-24,
27-29, 15-12) in 2 hours. Cement comes in the 13th position
leaving Defense at the bottom of the table. Defense was near to
win the match when they led 2-1 in sets and had two time the
match point in the fourth set but they lost this set and also
the tie break to allow Cement to declare themselves as Ethiopian
champions.
Photo Caption:
Mouloudia of Algeria vs. Ahly of Egypt
El Guish of Egypt vs. GSU of Kenya
FAP of Cameroon vs. University of Rwanda
GSU Head Coach Epoloto
Guish players happy with the victory
By Tarek Al Adwar CAVB Press Officer
from Niamey, Niger
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