Day 1
Egypt and Tunisia set the
first victory
 Cairo, Egypt, December 21, 2008- The organizers Egypt and the
defending champions Tunisia started their way successfully and
won their first matches in the opening day of the 2008 Boys
Youth African Nations Championship against Libya and Algeria
here at Cairo Stadium Complex on Sunday.
The opening ceremony was attended by the head of sports sector
in the Egyptian Ministry of youth and sports Ibrahim Ataia, Vice
President of the Egyptian Olympic Committee Mahmoud Ahmed Ali,
CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani, Local Organizing Committee and
FEVB President Ali Elsergany, SOC Delegate Joseph Mokanda,
Referee Delegate Hassan Ahmed CAVB Technical Director Mrs.
Howyda Mondy and the competition Manager Gamal Sheha.
The competition qualifying to the 2009 FIVB Boys Youth World
Championship in Italy features five teams Egypt, Tunisia,
Algeria, Libya and Burundi who play a round robin tournament
determining the African champions.
Egypt vs. Libya
Egypt edged Libya 3-0 (25-17, 25-9, 25-15) in 62 minutes. The
winners were superior in all net activity and used the efficient
centers Mohamed Elaskalany and Mohamed Khater to control the
block and also the right attacker Mostafa Idris who was the
match scorer with 15 points to penetrate regularly the Libyan
defense. Egypt started the competition with a win loss ratio of
1-0, while Libya dropped to 0-1.
Egypt head coach Reda Elgazale was happy to win the first match
and stressed that his players have more to do in the coming
match. “My players are very young and still they have more
efficiency to play better against the rest of the competition
teams. I stressed the setter today to use the middle blockers in
attacks to disturb the Libyan block and
Egypt controlled the match from the start using the solid block
of Elaskalany and the counter attackers through the setter Ahmed
Elkotb who organized the combinations to all net positions.
Libya struggled through their right attacker Ali Shakluwoon and
the improved backline defense to narrow the point deficit
gradually till Egypt won the set 25-17.
Egypt overwhelmed the situation gradually starting from the
second set as their players didn’t allow the Libyan team to
apply the their attacking strategy and thus Egypt won the second
set widely 25-9. the third set showed more improvement in
setting to the Egyptian right attacker Idris and thus he scored
many points that made him the match scorer with 15 points and
Egypt went through easily to win the third set 25-15.
Tunisia vs. Algeria
Tunisia fought for 100 minutes to clinch an important victory
over Algeria 3-1 (22-25, 25-10, 25-22, 25-20). Algeria started
the match aggressively to win the first set, but quickly Tunisia
used the defect in the Algerian reception to come from one set
behind and win three successive sets due to the superior
performance of the right attacker Brahim Besbes who was the
match scorer with 16 points.
Algeria head coach Abdelhakim Djehiche referred the defeat to
the weak reception of his team. He said that he tried to improve
his defense after the first set but he succeeded only to
rearrange the attacks.
Algeria started the match with more concentration in defense
and their setter Amir Kerboua arranged his combinations to
disturb the Tunisian block and succeeded to lead 8-4 at thre
first technical timeout (FTT). Tunisia rebounded back after two
blocks from the setter Mahdi Sammoud and led for the first time
11-10. Tunisia continued their upper hand due to their efficient
spikes through Ali Ben Abdallah. The Algerian performance raised
to the top at the end of the set as they turned the score from
22-20 for Tunisia to 25-22 to win the first set.
Tunisia improved their block through the centers Mohamed Ayech
and Sadam Ben Daoud and they stayed ahead all through till they
reached to 16-6 at the STT. The Tunisian opposite Brahim Besbes
did a good job in spiking from position 2 to allow his team to
win the set widely 25-10.
The third set was exciting due to the big effort of both teams
in developing the attacks through the good backline defense, but
Tunisia went forwards due to the strong hits of Besbes to lead
until Algeria regained the rhythm through the middle blocker
Sofiane Hasni to draw 13-13. Tunisia regained their good
reception and the left attackers Ali Othmane and Arbi Ben
Abdallah started to work well as Tunisia was ahead 16-14 at the
STT. Tunisia was better in reception afterwards and succeeded to
win the set 25-22 to lead 2-1 in sets.
Tunisia had the upper hand in the fourth set due to their
efficient attacks through Besebes from position 2 and Othmane
from position 4 so they were leading in most of set to win 25-20
and the match 3-1.
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