Sport | Other Sports
Al Nasr aim to salvage season by winning the Zayed Cup
The second Zayed Volleyball Cup starts today with two matches at the Al Qattara indoor sports hall in Al Ain.
- By Sayed Ali, Senior Reporter
- Published: 00:14 April 30, 2008
- Today: 5 pm Al Ain v Al Wasl, 7:30 Al Shabab v Al Nasr.
- Thursday: 5 pm Al Nasr v Al Wasl, 7:30 Al Ain v Al Shabab.
- Friday: 5 pm Al Wasl v Al Shabab, 7:30 Al Nasr v Al Ain.
Dubai: The second Zayed Volleyball Cup starts today with two matches at the Al Qattara indoor sports hall in Al Ain.
League champions Al Ain meet Al Wasl, while Al Nasr takes on Al Shabab.
"We will not end the season empty handed. We will win either the Zayed Cup or the President's Cup or both of them," Younis Sherrif, manager of Al Nasr told Gulf News yesterday.
Al Nasr, who dominated the volleyball scene in the last five seasons, failed to win any title this season.
They lost the league title and the FA cup and also lost the GCC clubs title and finished runners up.
"We sacrificed the league title for the GCC clubs championships, unfortunately we lost the GCC title in the last day when they robbed the title from us and presented it to Al Qadsia of Kuwait."
The tournament, which is the third in the volleyball association season schedule, will be held as an assembly tournament with the four clubs playing a round robin league in a period of three days, starting today and finishing on Friday.
Title
Defending champions Al Jazira lost in the quarterfinals to Al Nasr in a match held last week.
In the other quarterfinals, Al Ain beat Ajman, Al Shabab beat Bani Yas and Al Wasl ousted Al Ahli.
Winning the Zayed Cup and the President's Cup would be good compensation for Al Nasr who won 20 titles in the last five years.
"We are well prepared for the Zayed Cup and we will fight to clinch the title. Beating Al Jazira last week was a tremendous boost for us which lifted the morale of our team," said Younis.
Al Nasr strengthened their squad by signing Algerian national team skipper Ali Garboo to play along with his compatriot Hesham Gammadi.
The Algerian skipper came to replace Czech player Mark Thomas.
Al Nasr strengthened their squad by signing Algerian national team skipper Garboo to play along with his compatriot Gammadi...
Schedule: Zayed Cup
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