Volleyball in Algeria

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Volleyball: Algeria's women's team wins African Olympic slot

January 27, 2008 -- Following its fourth consecutive victory at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Blida, the Algerian women's volleyball team won the continental ticket to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in August. On Friday (January 25th), Algeria defeated South Africa 3-0 in sets, following defeats of Cameroon (3-0), Kenya (3-0) and Senegal (3-1).

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Volleyball: Algeria's men's team wins opening Olympic qualifier match

February 4, 2008 -- The Tunisian and Algerian men's volleyball teams won their first matches on Sunday (February 3rd) at the African Olympic Qualifications in Durban, South Africa. Tunisia defeated Morocco in a Group B straight sets match and will go on to play Egypt, Gabon and Mozambique before the semi-finals. Algeria, with the help of stars Ali Kerboua and Mohamed Chikhi, swept Nigeria in a Group A straight sets match. Group A also includes South Africa, Cameroon and Rwanda. Only the tournament winner will book a spot in the Olympic Games.

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Volleyball: Algeria's men's team wins opening Olympic qualifier match

L'EN ouvre par un succès

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Algeria defeats South Africa in 2008 Olympics volleyball qualifier

February 6, 2008 -- Algeria and Tunisia clinched more victories in Durban, South Africa on Tuesday (February 5th), the third day of the African qualifications tournament for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Algeria defeated South Africa and Tunisia overcame Mozambique, both in straight sets.

Algeria is in second place in Group A, with four points from two matches. Tunisia leads Group B with five points from three matches. Morocco is in third place with three points from two matches. Morocco will clash with Gabon on Wednesday, while Algeria plays Rwanda. The top two finishers in each group qualify for the semi-finals on Friday.

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Mano à mano entre l'Algérie et le Cameroun

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Algeria to clash with Tunisia in 2008 Olympic volleyball qualifier semis

February 8, 2008 -- Tunisia made the cut for the Africa Olympic qualification semi-finals after defeating Gabon on Thursday (February 7th) in straight sets and coming in second in the Group B standings. Algeria, Egypt and Cameroon are also in the final four. On Wednesday, Algeria continued their clean sweep by clinching a victory over Rwanda and on Thursday, the Whites won a 3-1 victory over Cameroon to finish at the top of Group A. Morocco lost their hopes of a semifinals berth after losing 0-3 to Egypt on Thursday.

In the semi-finals on Friday, Algeria will play Tunisia, while Egypt will clash with Cameroon. The winner of the tournament will represent the African continent at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

[Al-khiyal]

Men's African Olympic qualifications' semifinals:
Egypt and Algeria reach final spot

February 9, 2008 -- After a very exciting day fully attended by the spectators Egypt and Algeria qualified to the final spot of the African Olympic qualification to determine continental representative in Beijing 2008 after the North African neighbors cut their way towards the Olympic ticket following their victories over Cameroon and Tunisia respectively in the semifinal here at Tongaat hall in Durban, South Africa on Friday.

Egypt and Algeria will meet on Saturday to determine the African representative in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where the Egyptian side is searching for the second Olympic qualification in 8 years after they qualified for the last time in Sydney 2000, while Algerian men want to follow the footsteps of their women's counterparts who have already qualified early last month. The final will be preceded by the bronze medal match between Tunisia and Cameroon.

It is well known that the champions of this competition will secure the African vacancy in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The matches were attended by CAVB President Dr. Amr Elwani, CAVB first Vice president and South Africa Volleyball Federation President Mr. Tubby Reddy, CAVB Vice president Mr. Baba Sy and Control Committee members Mr. Camilo Antao, CAVB Referee committee president Mr. Hassan Ahmed and CAVB Technical director Mrs. Howyda Mondy.

Algeria vs. Tunisia

Algeria fought for two hours to achieve the biggest qualifications surprise as they defeated one of the major favorites for the Olympic ticket, Tunisia in a big five sets match 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 15-8). Algeria qualified to the final of a big African competition for the first time since 15 years when they won the African Nations Championship in 1993. The Algerian teams used the big guns Ali Kerboua and Mohamed Chikhi to disturb the Tunisian defense all through the match. On the other hand Tunisia started the match with their well known strength to win the first set but due to the deterioration of the reception and block Algeria had the upper hand until the end of the match.

Both teams started the match with the standing line up and with the same strategy, but Tunisia was the better side as they led 4-0 after a group of spikes from Marouane Fehri and Hichem Kaabi putting the Algerian coach under pressure of asking for time out. Algeria arranged their block and defense and got the same points like Tunisia at the FTT as Tunisia led 8-4. Algeria began to use the two strong left attackers Ali Kerboua and Mohamed Chikhi to decrease the point deficit to 13-10 before Tunisia reached to 16-12 at the STT. The Algerian block did a good job for a while through the centers Mohamed Oumessad and Toufik Belaid so the result reached to 20-18. Tunisia regained their intelligence of spiking the balls beside and above the block and continued till they won the set 25-22.

Algeria started to use their well known strong spike service of Kerboua as well as the spikes of Chikhi to lead 4-1. The Tunisian reception and digging was disturbed for a while but rapidly rearranged to stop the Algerian attacks and regained the lead at the FTT 8-7. Tunisia changed the strategy and started to use the fast attacks through the centers Ghezal and Bilel Ben Hassine to lead 12-10, but Algeria arranged their block and also depended on the fast combinations from position 3 and led 16-15 at the STT. Algerian block was superior and allowed them to maintain leading 21-19 specially after the combinations led by the setter Debbih Messaoud. Chikhi and Toufik Madjoubi spiked intelligently through the Tunisian block to win the set 25-22.

Algeria started the third set as the better side while Tunisia complained of bad reception and thus Algeria led 8-6 at the first technical time out (FTT). Both team depended on the middle blocker for the attacks and the Algerian side was better in this specially they showed better defense and they led 16-14 at the second technical time out (STT). The Tunisian coach made some substitutions and replaced Kaabi by Karamosli so they came near till 19-18. Kerboua led Algeria with his spikes from position 4 and also his spike service to allow his team to win the set 25-22.

The Tunisian coach started the fourth set with the other setter Saifeddine El Majid instead of the team captain Ghazi Guidara and also Karamosli as right attacker instead of Kaabi. Tunisia regained their concentration and started leading 8-5 at the FTT due to the impermeable block and the potent spikes led by the setter El Majid. Tunisian block of Ben Hassine, Ghezal and Fehri was better so they increased the point deficit to 11-7. Tunisia used the disturbed Algerian defense to stay leading 16-11. Algeria tried to return back to the set but Tunisia was more organized in attack and defense to win the set 25-20 and drew 2-2 in sets to extend the match to tiebreak.

Algeria used the weapon of spike service of Kerboua to lead 8-1 at the court shift using the improper Tunisian reception. Algeria continued their superiority through the fast attacks of the centers in position 3 to increase the point deficit to 13-3. Tunisia tried to save the match and scored 5 points but the Algerian more relaxed players did it and won the tiebreak 15-8 and the match 3-2.

Egypt vs. Cameroon

Egypt rebounded back from one set behind to win their semifinal match against the strong Cameroon team 3-1 (19-25, 25-23, 25-21, 28-26) in 101 minutes of thriller performance that made the spectators on their toes specially in the fourth set. Cameroon team played a marvelous match and only lost the critical points each set against the Egyptians who were not in their top form specially in serving and receiving. Cameroon head coach Mayam Blaise surprised Egypt by playing with his star Jean Ndaki as opposite instead of middle blocker and succeeded to win a set and was near to win the fourth set when they missed 3 set points.

Cameroon started the match aggressively as they used well the Egyptian mistakes in serving and defense and succeeded to block well Egypt through the middle blocker El Hadj Abbas to lead 8-4 at the FTT. Egypt coach asked for time out when the result widened to 10-5 and afterwards Egypt improved relatively their block against Cameroon attacks and thus Egypt decreased the point deficit to 13-10. Cameroon big guns Wounembaina and Jean Ndaki penetrated regularly the Egyptian block to continue leading 16-10 at the STT. Cameroon spikers repeated their unstoppable hits against the weak Egyptian block through Jean Ndaki and Moussa to win the set 25-19.

Egypt started the second set with two substitutions as the Egyptian coach replaced the setter Ashraf Aboul Hassan by the other setter Mohamed Mahdi and the left attacker Mohamed Abdel Moneim by Saleh Fathy. Cameroon continued the same strategy and depended on the rockets sent by Ndaki and Wounembaina. Egypt improved the block to lead 5-3 but quickly they fell in the same service mistakes to allow Cameroon to lead 8-7 at the FTT. Egypt improved their block through Saleh Fathy and Hossam Shaarawy and used the big gun Ahmed Salah to spike his well known rockets from position 2 and thus Egypt led 16-14 at the STT. Egypt continued as the better side through the much improved block of Mohamed Ali and Fathy to continue leading till 24-19. Cameroon scored 4 successive points before the Egyptian team won the set 25-23.

Egypt started the third set with the same rhythm and through the efficient services they led widely at the FTT 8-2. Cameroon arranged their block through Abbas and repeated their strong spike service Wounembaina to decrease the point deficit to 9-6. The Egyptian wing spiker Fathy did well in spiking from both front and backline and again Egypt widen the score to 16-10 at the STT. Egyptian coach made many substitutions to keep the momentum and through the spikes of Fathy and Salah Egypt continued leading 22-16 when Cameroon coach asked for time out to rearrange his players and he succeeded to decrease the point deficit relatively 23-20 but succeeded to win the set 25-21.

Cameroon improved their block in the fourth set against the Egyptian attacks and they succeeded to lead 8-5 after good combinations from the setter Marcel Ndaki. Egypt rebounded back through the unstoppable spikes of Salah and Fathy to reach to the draw 13-13. Cameroon opposite Jean Naki served well and Valery Tatsi spiked efficiently to allow Cameroon to regain the lead 19-16. The match went to the most exciting part as Cameroon led 24-21 and lost three set points before the Egyptian coach made frequent substitutions to save the set and he succeeded to bring the draw 24-24 before Egypt won the thriller set 28-26.