CAMEJO FIRES AL ARABI TO SUPER CUP VICTORY

Former Cuban captain and Outside smasher Osmel Camejo paired up wih opposite Jorge Garcia to put Al Arabi Club on a roll in a dramatic third set turn-around and the defending champions flattened the challenge of Al Rayyan Club in the Super Cup with a rib-tickling four-set win on Friday.

At the Al Arabi Club’s home court, QVA League holders Al Rayyan came through a tight opening set, raising their game in the closing stages. Al Arabi did the same and recovered just in time to win the second set and tie the scores.

Then Al Rayyan, producing some effective blockings through Dahi Waleed Mubarak and Bilal, got an early push and looked like taking the third when they were 22-17 ahead.

At this stage, Camejo and Garcia combined and the former’s leathal serves did not give any opportunity to Al Rayyan and Al Arabi bagged eight of the final nine points to go up 2-1 before completing the four-set 23-25 25-23 25-23 25-21 triumph.

The one-hour and 57-minute efforts replicated the last year’s come-from-behind 3-1 victory for Al Arabi in the inaugural edition of the Super Cup, played between the Emir Cup winners and the QVA League champions.
QVA President Khalid Ali al Mawlawi presided over the prize distribution ceremony in attendance of Secretary-General Mohammed Ali al Mohannadi.

The champions earned QR100,000, while the losers took home QR20,000.
Both teams had changes from the rosters used during the recently-concluded QVA Cup, won by El Jaish. The telling manner in which Al Arabi Club rallied and imposed themselves over their most bitter rivals, the season appears to be a tight rope-walk for all.

Coach Maaouia Lajnef again faced problems when his main setter Seifeddine Elmajid began well but could not sustain his level when the pressure mounted. He was replaced by Khaled Shamiyah, who helped the team regain the momentum. Experienced Juma Faraj made way for Garcia. Ahmed Bassam and Ibrahim Mohamed also excelled at the net play.

This was the first Super Cup for Lajnef and the Tunisian was delighted with his team’s victory with quality volleyball. “The match was really very difficult and you can see the happiness on the faces of my players.

“Osmel is a good team player. Even though he had some problems in the beginning of the third set, he came back and won the crucial points for us. The changes that we made were quite beneficial for us. Every time a new player like Khaled, Jorge and Bassam came in, he contributed. So that helped us a lot,” he said about his players.

Lajnef also talked about the upcoming League and said, “We’ve taken the first step. Now the League will be our second step. We’re ready to do our best.”
Camejo, who led the team with 29 points and had four aces, said, “You saw how strong the match was. Both teams played wonderful game. We kept talking about the match during our preparations and today, we delivered. We’re all very happy for the victory and the club.”

Faraj was pleased with the strong comeback by his team and he attributed the surge to the bench strength. “Both the teams were at full strength and we staged a strong comeback in the third set by getting seven points. We have a bigger bench than before and all of them played their part well. We hope to have some exciting time in the season ahead.”

Al Arabi captain Ali Omar said, “As expected, it was a very tough match and it was really difficult to say who was going to win. Our team had lost the concentration a bit in the beginning but we returned and fixed the problems, before winning the Super Cup.

“The League is definitely our next big goal. We’ve not won it for three years and this time, we’ll go all out to seal it,” added the Al Arabi skipper.

Al Rayyan captain Usman Ajab said, “In sports, especially in volleyball, timing matters a lot. I think we did not make changes at the right time. And this made the difference between losing and winning. Al Arabi took the advantage of their changes and battled stronger than us.

“In the third set, we were up by five points. We could not push ourselves and this helped Al Arabi win the set and change the complexion of the match. In the beginning, it appeared that Al Rayyan could win 3-0. But Al Arabi reversed the trend and they handled the crucial stages much better than us.”

The Rayyan player also added that the quality of the teams this season would make the League quite difficult and unpredicatable. “Yeah, the level of the teams is much higher than the previous year. It will really be difficult to say anything about the winner. There are five or six teams who have strong line-ups and this is surely going to making the season both tough and exciting.”

Results

Al Arabi Club beat Al Rayyan Club 23-25 25-23 25-23 25-21 in one hour, 57 minutes

Teams

Al Arabi: Ali Omar (captain), Juma Faraj, Seifeddine Elmajid, Renan Rebeiro, Osmel Camejo, Abderrahman Mohammed (L), Ibrahim Mohamed, Ghanim al Remaihi (L), Thiago Oliveira, Amro Hisham, Khaled Shamiyah, Ahmed Bassam and Jorge Garcia.
Coach: Maaouia Lajnef

Al Rayyan Club: Osman Ajab (captain), Ali Ishaq, Mubarak Dahi Waleed, Fawi, Mohamed Alawi, Ali Assadi, Andre Lewis, Philip Mayo, Casino Dittoni, Bilial, Suleiman Saeed (L) and Mohamed Ameen.
Coach: Daniele Bagnoli

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