Day 3
Tunisia edges Egypt in the way to the title
 Cairo,
Egypt, December 23, 2008- The defending champions Tunisia came
one more step towards keeping the title when they cruised past
the organizers Egypt in straight sets in the third day of the
2008 Boys Youth African Nations Championship here at Cairo
Stadium Complex on Tuesday. The promising Burundi team achieved
their first victory over Libya. Tunisia becomes near the double
as their Junior counterparts won also the African championship
last August.
The matches were attended by 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.
It is known that 2008 African Nations Championship features
five teams Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Burundi who play a
round robin tournament determining the African champions and the
qualifiers to the 2009 FIVB World Championship.
Egypt vs. Tunisia
Tunisia used their big gun Brahim Besbes and the strong spike
service to clinch a critical victory over Egypt 3-0 (25-17,
25-15, 25-20) in 69 minutes. The Tunisian star scored impressive
20 key points that led his team to the big victory that improved
their record to 2-0 while Egypt dropped to 2-1.
Tunisia head coach Lotfi Ben Slimane expressed his happiness
due to the affectivity of his players to apply his strategy. “I
asked my setter to use the wing spikers at the extremes of the
net and he succeeded to do that. I think also we used well the
spike services to disturb the Egyptian weak defense.” He said
Egypt head coach Reda Elgazale was extremely sad because his
players didn’t apply his strategy. For the second day in a raw
he left the hall without taking to his players.
Tunisia had the upper hand at the start of the match due to the
unstoppable hits of the opposite Brahim Besbes from position 2
and they led 8-3 at the first technical timeout FTT. Egypt
started to arrange the block against the Tunisian attacks as the
centers Mohamed Elaskalany and Mohamed El Mahy did well to score
successive points that decreased the point deficit gradually but
again the Egyptian backline defense had some mistakes that
allowed Tunisia to organize the counter attacks through Besbes
and Arbi Benabdallah to continue leading 16-11. Tunisia
overwhelmed the net action completely through their better block
and attacks as Besbes led his team to win the first set 25-17.
Tunisia started the second set in the same rhythm and sent
their razor sharp spike services that weren’t tolerated by the
Egyptian team and Tunisia led 8-3 at the FTT. Although the
Egyptian coach made some substitutions to adjust the defense but
the Tunisian team started to use the combinations through the
skilful setter Mahdi Sammoud who deceived the Egyptian blockers.
Tunisia stayed ahead 16-9 at the STT due to the superior
performance of Benabdallah and Mohamed Othmane in spiking from
position 4.
The Egyptian coach made some substitutions to save the match
and succeeded to adjust the rotation of his blockers to stop the
Tunisian wing spikers and succeeded to lead for the first time
at a technical timeout 8-6 due to the adjusted block of Hussein
Mostafa. Tunisia regained their rhythm using the spike service
of Besbes and Ben Abdallah to regain lead 16-14 at the STT.
The Egyptian players lost their confidence for a while to allow
Tunisia to use their mistakes and widen the score to 23-17. The
Tunisian coach made some substitution to keep the rhythm where
the substitutes did also a good job to win the set 25- and the
match in straight sets.
Burundi vs. Libya
The promising and more enthusiastic Burundi team cruised past
Libya in a thriller encounter 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-17)
in 98 minutes. Burundi improved their win- loss ratio to 1-1
with three points, while Libya dropped to 0-3. The team that
formed only a month before the competition played a great match
as the centers Sixte Nderagakura and Delphin Bigirmana with the
team captain Innocent Irdukunda were the stars of the match ad
played a great role in this victory. The Libyan spiker Mohamed
Badr was the match scorer with 23 points.
Burundi Head coach Ahmed Elgazar was very happy to see the
results of his short work. “I’m happy to win the match against a
strong opponent,” Said Elgazar cheerfully. “I think the big
spirit of my players was the cornerstone of this victory. Now
I’m looking forwards to win against Algeria and Tunisia to
compete for the second position.” He added firmly.
Libya head coach Toufik Mansouri was sad to lose the third
match in a raw and left the hall immediately after the match.
Libya players were steadier in their defense and attacks at the
beginning of the first set so they lead the set due to their
better reception. After Libya led at the FTT and 16-12 at the
STT due to the efficient spikes of Mohamed Abodabbus, Burundi
came to the match after they deployed their solid block of
Nderagakura and Dushime yves to draw and lead for the first time
19-18. Libya came back and succeeded to win the critical points
of the set to win 25-22.
The second set showed better performance from Burundi team
specially the team captain Innocent Irdukunda who sent his
rockets from position 4 till they led 8-7 at the FTT. Libya
struggled to come back but Burundi players became more motivated
to score and to win the set as the setter Patrick Bizimungu did
well to organize his team’s attacks to win the set 25-20 and to
level the score 1-1.
The third set was very exciting as it went point by point and
the score kept near all through till the draw 23-23. Burundi
again used their big gun Irdukunda to finalize the set 26-24.
The highly motivated Burundi players fought for each ball in
the fourth set and tried their best to stop the emergence of
Libya team. The strong spiker Irdukunda with the center Delphin
Bigirmana led their team to win the set 25-17 and the match 3-1
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