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Day 3
A purely North African
semifinal with Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco
qualifying
 Tunis,
Tunisia, August 26, 2008- Morocco completed the
semifinal draw after they took over Botswana in third
and final day of the preliminary round of the 2008 Men’s
African Nations Championship to join the already
qualified Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt to the final four
at the end of the preliminary round here at Sidi Bousaid
Hall in Tunis, Tunisia on Tuesday. In a match for the
top of Pool A the organizers Tunisia hammered Algeria in
straight sets to lead the pool and joined by Algeria to
semis. In the same pool South Africa won their first
match against Cameroon to finish third leaving Cameroon
at the bottom of the pool. Egypt complete their clean
sheet and achieved their third victory in a row over
Benin to lead pool B and joined by Morocco to semis
while Benin came third while Botswana finished at the
bottom of the pool.
The semifinal will feature two strong encounters on
Thursday when Tunisia meets Morocco while Egypt meets
Algeria in the other semifinal. In the semifinal of 5-8
positions South Africa plays Botswana and Cameroon faces
Benin.
Tunisia vs. Algeria
Tunisia surprised Algeria with their rocket spike
services from the first point to claim a comfortable
straight sets victory 3-0 (25-15, 25-9, 25-13) in 60
minutes. The right attacker Elyes Karamosly who was
chosen by his coach as the match superstar was the main
factor of the victory not only by his service but also
by his unstoppable hits from all net positions. On the
other hand Algerian team was shocked by the strong start
of the Tunisian team and failed to come back until the
end of the match.
Tunisia finished the first round with clean sheet and
win- loss ratio 3-0, while Algeria team second of pool A
with 2-1 record.
The Tunisia coach Hedi Karray insured that he was
careful to bring the team to the highest performance
gradually and he stated that the team already played
their best against Algerian after both the technical and
psychic aspects raised to the top. “Today Karamosly was
the match star and I’m Happy with his performance. Also
I’m happy that my players apply the strategy of
depending on the wing spikers because the Algerian
centers are slow in moving to the wings.” Said Hedi.
The Algerian coach El Hadj Belgacem was shocked with his
team’s performance. “my players lost the concentration
from the start and failed to come back. I tried my best
to ask them to do their best away from the result but it
wasn’t our day.” The coach said sadly.
Tunisia hammered their opponents with a razor sharp
spike services from the start through Chokri Jouini and
Elyes Karamosly to lead 8-4 at the first technical
timeout. Tunisia continued the same rhythm using the
unstable reception of the Algerian team till Tunisia led
in the STT 16-8. With the wide point difference Tunisia
players became more motivated and continued through the
skilful setting of Skander Ben Mansour to win the set
25-15.
Tunisia continued the same strategy in the second set
using the reception mistakes of the Algerian team and
led 6-3 and with 2 reception mistakes they went 8-3 at
the FTT. The Tunisian middle blockers Ahmed Khadhi and
Aymen Karoui blocked the way in front of the Algerian
attackers and increased the point deficit to 16-6 at the
STT. The Tunisia left attackers Ismail Moalla and Jouini
hammered the Algerian defense with their unstoppable
spikes that allowed Tunisia to go ahead and win the set
25-9.
The Algerian team showed relative improvement in the
third set through the positive action from the setter
Messaoud Debbih and the left attacker Billel Soualem so
the point difference dropped to 7-6 before Tunisia again
went to 8-6 at the FTT. Algerian players lose the
concentration that allowed Tunisia to apply their
strategy in the combinations and extended their lead to
16-8. The shocked Algerian players became helpless in
front of the Tunisian rockets from all directions and
Tunisia won the set 25-13.
Benin vs. Egypt
Egypt secured the top of pool B following their easy
victory over Benin 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-18) in 59
minutes. The Egyptian coach Emad Nawar played with some
of the substitutes and without the efficient left
attacker Ahemd Dronka who suffered the injury during the
last match against Morocco.
The Egyptian coach mentioned that he used all the
substitutes due to the injury of Dronka and also the
little injury of Abdel moneim during the match. “We are
going step by step and now we are looking forwards to
qualify to the final through the step of Algeria.” He
said.
Benin coach Antonnin was happy that his team improved
from match to match till they reached to the best
performance against Egypt. “After two years our team
will be a great team competing at the African level.” He
said.
Egypt controlled the net in the first set through the
centers Mamdouh Abdel Moneim and Mohamed Anis and went
through easily through the powerful spikes of Mohamed El
Shemerly and Ahmed Abdel Aal to win the set comfortably
25-14.
In the second set Benin team was very competitive at the
first part and came near several times due to the
activity of the centers Quahhar Mama and Raimou against
the Egyptian attacks. On the other hand the Egyptian
coach made many substitutions in the starting line up to
give the chance to some bench players. After Benin
reached to 14-13, the Egyptian players increased their
activity and the coach changed the strategy to the fast
attacks through position 3 and succeeded to win the set
25-17.
Egypt maintained with the same line up and Mohamed
Khattab did a lot of work from in spiking from position
2 and led Egypt to go ahead 8-4 at the FTT. Benin worked
through the wing spikers to decrease the point deficit,
but the Egypt again controlled the situation to win the
set 25-18 and the match in straight sets.
Morocco vs. Botswana
Morocco edged Botswana in straight sets 25-11, 25-20,
27-25 in 60 minutes. Botswana team played their best
match and was near to win the third set while Morocco
team complained the lack of confidence after they lost
against Egypt the day before. Morocco completed the
semifinal draw after they finished the preliminary round
in the second position with 2-1 record while Botswana
came at the bottom of the pool with 0-3 record.
Morocco head coach Mohamed Abdallaoui was angry with his
players for the performance that made them near to lose
the third set. “I sit with the players after they lost
against Egypt and asked them to play with their
mentality more than the power and they appear in the
match lacking then confidence specially the main setter
Akram El Aoudi. I hope that the players regained the
confidence before the semifinal.” He said.
On the other hand Botswana head coach was proud of his
team after playing their best match and said that he
made some substitutions to improve the block and attacks
and succeeded with the new strategy to keep going with a
big team like Morocco.
Morocco overwhelmed the situation from the start of the
match through their efficient spike service which was
not tolerated by Botswana reception. Mohamed Allaoui
used his spikes from position 2 to lead 8-3 at the FTT.
They continued the same rhythm as the score became wider
until Morocco won the set easily 25-11.
The second set showed early Botswana improvement through
adjusting the block, but still the problem was the
reception that prevents the team from applying their
attacking strategy. Morocco led 8-5 at the FTT after a
group of spikes from Allaoui and Youssef Oughlaf and
continued leading 16-10 at the STT. Botswana team tried
their best through the spikes of Kabo Moetoe and the
block of Nelson Nkhwinya, but Morocco worked well with
the wing spikers to win the set 25-20.
The third set was the most competitive as it went point
by point till the draw 10-10 due to the improvement of
the attacking strategy in Botswana team and the draw
continued 14-14 before Morocco scored two points through
the sharp spikes of Allaoui to lead 16-14 at the STT.
After the technical timeout Botswana played their best
in the match as Kabo Moetoe and Nkhwinya did well in all
skills and Botswana was ahead 21-18 in the biggest point
difference in the match. Due to some mistakes from
Botswana players Morocco rebounded back to draw 22-22
before losing two set points till they won the set 27-25
and the match in Straight sets.
South Africa vs. Cameroon
South Africa cruises past Cameroon 3-1 (29-27, 20-25,
25-23, 25-18) in their final pool A match. South Africa
depended on their middle blockers to stop Cameroon
strong attackers and succeeded to penetrate their
defense regularly in the match. South Africa finished
pool A matches in the third position with a 1-2 record,
while Cameroon finished at the bottom of the pool with
0-3 record.
Cameroon team started as the better side and succeeded
to use the strong spikes of Jean Ntabeye and the fast
spikes of Karl Tchokouani to lead 8-4 at the FTT. With
the time South Africa entered the match through
arranging the block of Ellerberk and Naidoo Quwin who
succeeded to come back till the draw 10-10. Cameroon
regained the rhythm and led again through the
combinations of the setter Mayam Ongolo and thus
Cameroon led 16-14 at the STT. South Africa arranged
their backline defense and arranged their attacks
through the efficient opposite May Ethen to lead many
times until they saved three set points for Cameroon to
win the exciting set 29-27.
Cameroon dominated the second set due to their powerful
hits and stayed ahead most of the set incidents where
Ntabeye and Yoni Oudoua did well and won the set 25-20.
The third set showed again another thriller performance
from both sides ad South Africa started dominating the
net through the activity of Naidoo in position 3 and
Ethen but Cameroon came near again through the activity
of Oudoua and Ntabeye till South Africa led 24-21 when
they struggled to save the set scoring two points, but
South Afriuca through a spike from Ethens finalized the
set 25-23.
In the fourth set South Africa led by the young setter
Kyle Marimunthu worked well with his team using more the
middle blockers in attacks and succeeded to put his team
ahead 8-2 at the FTT which increased the potential of
the South African players and the setter with the aid of
the centers continued the same rhythm to win the set
25-18 and the match 3-1.
South Africa head coach Mabeka was happy with both the
victory and the performance because his players apply
his strategy during the match. ”Our strategy was to
concentrate on the middle of the net through the middle
blockers and they did a good job in keeping Cameroon
team under pressure offensively and defensively.” He
said.
On the other hand the upset Cameroon coach Peter
Nonnenbroich refeered the defeat to the lack of his main
players as well as the injury of the key star David
Feughouo. “We have to concentrate now on the ranking
matches with the available players.” He said. Results
and Ranking
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