VOLLEYBALL (Elite) – Ali Nouaour: “We take a point, I think there was room to get a little more”

This Saturday, Amiens Métropole Volley-Ball lost to the wire against Calais. Despite this frustrating defeat (3-2), the people of Amiens are already looking ahead to the next events.

For its first match of 2025, Amiens Métropole Volley-Ball faced Calais, a direct competitor for the play-offs. The match was generally balanced and the two teams had to decide in the tie-break. This is why several feelings crossed Ali Nouaour’s mind: “There were a lot of emotions during and after the match. The first is that we still put in a great performance. With a restart match, it’s always difficult to play well. We expected a big match against Calais and it was the case. It’s half fig, half grape. We take a point. I think there was room to look a little moremaybe two points, or even three points”. The people of Amiens knew that this move to Calais would be difficult: “I told the players that there would be a little bit of waste, that it was a team that didn’t have many defeats at home” declared Ali Nouaour.

The first set was to the advantage of the locals, “We had a little bit of pressure,” admits Ali Nouaour. Mehdi Hachemi and I asked the players to free themselves a little, to play less against the opponent, but to be more united. We lost the first set (25-19)” recalled the Amiens tactician. Despite this difficult start to the match, the Samarian reaction was not long in coming as the Picards raised their level of play: “in the second set we are much better, we made fewer mistakes […] We moved the passer a lot, which allowed us to set up our defensive block. We won the set quite easily (16-25). Maybe they too had a little slack because they put a lot of energy into the first set.” confided Ali Nouaour. After the break, it was essential according to him to“attack this third set from the outset, we did it. We were in front, we only maintained a three-point lead. I told the players that three points weren’t enough and that we had to look for a plus 4, a plus 5, a plus 6.”. It was ultimately Calais who won this set (25-23) on a controversial point where “the referee whistles an unimaginable net foul while the second referee is one meter away from the action”. In Ali Nouaour’s eyes, this round represented his biggest regret: « Cis a little bit the black point of the match« . In a fourth round fully to their advantage, the Samarians played their game to come back to level with their opponents. In the end, Calais broke away from Amiens in a tie-break where “we’re chasing the score a little bit […] I think a certain fatigue had set in” affirmed Ali Nouaour.

A fatigue which can be explained by the potential injury to Kamal Ouali in the first set, replaced by Exoce Ilouoni “who played a very, very good match. But playing with two central players for five sets is not necessarily easy.” This defeat is frustrating for the Picard coach because « Today we lost the match, but we have more points than them. It’s a bit of an aberration because of the two sets we win, we give them two little spankings, and for us, the sets we lose are rather tough.« . On this meeting, “the big downside for both teams, but I think we were disadvantaged a little bit, was the refereeing which was at a regional level” explained Ali Nouaour. The latter therefore gave a mixed assessment of this match, because he was frustrated at only taking one point. “We will remember the positive, we will necessarily talk about the negative. We have to keep this dynamic.” The Samarians now turn their attention to the 1/8 final of the Coupe de France against Beauvais on January 18, before returning to the championship with the reception of the Chalonnais leader on January 25.