|
Mouloudia achieved their
second trophy
 Niamey,
Niger April 27, 2007-: Mouloudia of Algeria achieved their
second trophy in the history of the African clubs Championship
following their wonderful victory over El Guish of Egypt in the
final of the twenty sixth Men’s Volleyball African Clubs
Champions Championship held here at Palais des Sports hall in
Niamey, Niger on Friday. The Algerian team who had only one
title under their belt in this competition history in 1988 added
the second after their surprising defeat to the competition
defending champions Al Ahly in the semifinal on Thursday. Al
Ahly who had the record of titles of this competition with 8
cups came in the third position following their victory over the
dark horses of the competition GSU of Kenya who came fourth.
In the other ranking positions Ahly of Libya defeated FAP of
Cameroon to win the fifth position which is the best in their
history while University of Rwanda clinched the seventh position
after their win against Port Douala of Cameroon.
 After
the final match, the competition Control Committee president Mr.
Baba Sy gave the cup and the gold medals to the Algerian team,
the silver medals to El Guish and the bronze medals to Al Ahly
in presence of Niger Minister of Culture, Egyptian and the
Algerian Ambassadors in Niger, SOC delegates Mr. Okba Gougam and
Mr. Morakinyo, Referee Delegate Mr. Majeed Djirad, and Niger
Volleyball Federation President Mr. Amada Sidiyane.
Mouloudia of Algeria repeated what they did the semifinal Match
against Ahly in the final match against El Guish, as they used
their potent spike services of Ali Kerboua and Valery and the
efficient spikes of Kerboua and Ben Hallal to clinch a straight
sets victory in the final of the competition over El Guish of
Egypt (25-22, 25-21, 25-19) in 66 minutes.
After Mouloudia led in the first set 8-6 and 16-12, Guish came
to the match using their efficient spikes of Moihamed Gabal and
Eslam Awad to get the first draw 16-16. Mouloudia used the spike
service to win the first set 25-22. In the second set El Guish
led at the start 5-3 before Mouloudia used their efficient block
of Samir Ferad and Rafik Tersatine to lead 16-9 and 22-20 to win
the set 25-21. Giush head coach made many substitutions to save
the match but they maintained the service and reception mistakes
all through the match and that costs them to lose the third set
the same way by faults in reception.
 “I’m
happy to win this title because we were well prepared to do that
but without the pressure which was on many teams like Ahly.”
Said Mouloudia Head coach Karimo Bernaoui while he was carrying
the cup. “I want to thank my players very much because they
maintained their rhythm and motivation from the start of the
competition till the end.” He added.
Guish head coach Foad Abdel Salam referred the defeat to the
psychological effect of the Ahly defeat against the same team. “
I tried to prepare my players psychologically to the match but
they were all out of form in the final. I’m not satisfied with
the performance as I expected to see some pressure from my team,
not to lose 3-0. But finally the second position is good
achievement for my team in the first participation.” He added.
The disappointed Ahly players of Egypt rebounded from one set
behind to clinch a 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-20) victory over
GSU of Kenya in the bronze medal match. The last champions
started the match with poor performance as they were affected by
the defeat against Mouloudia in the semifinal to lose the first
set but their head coach changed most of the standing players
except Ahmed Salah and Hamdy El safy who led the team with the
younger players to win three successive sets and won the match.
GSU of Kenya started the match more motivated than Ahly players
who
 lost
their title so the Kenyan team used their strong service to
disturb Ahly reception. They led 8-6 after a group of efficient
spikes from Elphas Biwott and Bernard Musumba. GSU penetrated
the improper Ahly block to continue leading 16-13. After a group
of mistakes in spiking and reception in Ahly, the Kenyan team
won the set 25-23. in the second set Ahly coach made some
substitutions putting Mohamed El Hosseiny in the position of
left attacker and Usama Kemsan in the middle blocker so they
improved the reception and began to use the spikes of Ahmed
Salah and Hamdy El Safy to lead all through the set 8-4 and
16-11. GSU coach tried to use the spiking from the backline to
deceive Ahly defense but he faced a strong block and that
allowed Ahly to win the set 25-22 and held the score to 1-1. The
third set showed the same rhythm from Ahly as they deployed
their solid block against GSU attacks to lead 8-6 by the first
technical time out. GSU came to the match again to lead 16-13
using their solid block of David Opiyo and Wakoli Tali. Ahly
coach did some substitutions to inject new blood in his team and
he succeeded to use the strong spikes from the front and back
lines to win the set 25-22. GSU tried to save the match in the
fourth set and again they arranged their block that allowed them
to lead 8-6 but Ahly improved their reception and digging to
lead 16-15, and then they used the mistakes of the Kenyan team
to win the set 25-20 and the match 3-1.
 Ahly
coach Nour Attia was sad although he got the bronze medal. “We
came here for the Gold for the bronze, but unfortunately my
player didn’t do for that. But as we won 7 titles in the last
two years it is the sport to lose now. We will try to recover
quickly because we had another missions to do.” Said Attia.
GSU head coach Moses Epoloto was happy with his team’s
performance in the competition as a whole and in the bronze
medal match particularly. “We came her to win the cup but now we
had enough experience to achieve that next year.” Said Epoloto.
Ahly of Libya made a new surprise when they defeated FAP of
Cameroon in a thriller five set match 3-2 (25-19, 25-27, 25-23,
18-25, 15-10) in 118 minutes. The Libyan team played one of
their best matches and used again their strong front line in
spiking and blocking to clinch the victory which put them in the
best rank in the competition history, the fifth place while FAP
occupied the sixth. The Libyan setter Johan used his skillful
combinations to clinch the critical points in each set by the
efficient spikes of John Adamu and Yousef Annan.
University of Rwanda ended the competition with their best
performance as they defeated Port Douala of Cameroon 3-0 (25-21,
25-18, 25-19) in 56 minutes to clinch the seventh position
leaving Port in the eighth position.
Photo Caption:
Mouloudia players celebrate the victory with the officials.
The Silver Medalists Guish of Egypt
Mouloudia players celebrate the victory
Mouloudia vs. Guish in the final
The competition referees with the control committee.
Jury Table of the final.
By Tarek Al Adwar CAVB Press Officer
from Niamey, Niger
|
