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Monday, January 25, 2010

MCA widen gap at top of Algerian league table

Despite stiffening competition for second place, MCA remained comfortable at the top of Algeria's D1 table after round 19.

By Abdou Tajeddine for Magharebia in Algiers – 24/01/10

Round nineteen of the Algerian football premier league saw MC Algiers consolidating their lead, thanks to a 3-1 win Friday (January 22nd) in a rescheduled match on home turf against CA Bordj Bou Arreridj.

MCA, Algeria's oldest football club, also benefited from a 2-1 loss by their direct competitors JS Kabylie on Saturday; the gap between the two leaders grew to four points. JSK are now tied in second with their 19th round contenders, USM El Harrach with 31 points each.

After the match, MCA coach Francois Bracci said that his team restored balance and prestige after the loss sustained last week to USM Annaba.

"The win against CABBA enabled us to break away at the top of table," he said, praising his players who "regained the self-confidence to continue their march and win the premier league title for the first time in 11 years."

Competition stepped up considerably for second place in round 19; three teams were just one win away from vying for the top spot, but failed to see it through.

WA Tlemcen made off with just one point after a 2-2 draw at home against USM Algiers. JSM Bejaia also drew on their home pitch against guests CR Belouizdad, while USM Annaba lost 2-1 on the road against CA Batna.

These results left Tlemcen and Bejaia tied in fourth place with 30 points. Meanwhile, USM Algiers are in ninth, tied with CABBA, CRB and ES Setif, whose match against MC El Eulma was postponed.

ES Setif now have four matches in hand against MCEE, MCA, MC Oran and AS Khroub, who all have one match in hand.

The match between AS Khroub and USM Blida was exceptionally exciting. With guests USMB up 2-1 just three minutes from time, the local team managed to equalize and then score a third and winning goal from the spot in the 6th minute of injury time.

Blida coach Kamel Moussa strongly protested against the referee, saying after the match that "the referee is responsible for our loss to AS Khroub. He did a favor to our rivals, and added 7 minutes in injury time; something that had much effect on our players and made them lose balance, and consequently, the match itself."

USM Blida are now in 16th place with 18 points.

At the bottom of the table, capital team NA Hussein Dey lost 1-0 to ASO Chlef. With this loss, NAHD remain next-to-last with 11 points, just one ahead of MSP Batna.

Batna lost to MC Oran 2-0 on the latter's pitch; the home advantage helped Oran climb to 7th place with 29 points.

Meanwhile, ASO Chlef are tied with MCEE in 13th place, and AS Khroub are in 14th with 20 points.

Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/articles/2010/01/24/feature-06.

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