These photos are courtesy of Rico Navarro (bleachertalk.blogspot.com). According to Rico, had the Springdale teams gone to Manila for the Rifa Cup, Cebu would have won more titles or at least bagged the top two spots.
Now, that would have been something.
The team defeated Paref-Southridge, 3-2, in the finals via shootout.
Here are a few pics.
Crazy Horse defeated USJ-R, 1-0, to grab the Aboitiz Men’s League title.
No surprises there. The scoreline maybe surprising, but the win, itself, isn’t.
However, there is one big surprise in the match, something, the players, coaches and parents should look out for.
About five minutes into the match, the game was stopped. The reason? A player told the ref to check the ball. The ref stopped the game, and checked the ball and found two nails portruding at the surface of the ball.
They were rusty, and they were stuck at the surface of the ball. I remember, the sharp end of one nail had to be about one centimeter off the surface. It was a good thing one sharp eye caught it. If not, imagine a header, with both nails stuck on the ball…and you have a recipe for disaster.
A warning for the players, coaches, parents and the organizers of the Thirsty Cup, the tournament will be at the Cebu City Sports Center, a field full of such hardware. (I remember our paper did a special report on the trash found at the CCSC field back in 2000)
Aside from pruning the list of players, you may also prune the field.
AGE group rivals Don Bosco College and Paref-Springdale scored contrasting wins as they split their semifinal matches in the Aboitiz Boys 12 and Boys 15 Cup at the San Roque Parish football grounds yesterday.
Don Bosco got the first win after a hard-fought 3-2 escape over Springdale to bag the first seat in the Boys 12 finals next week.
Noel Christian opened the scoring in the fourth minute before Shawn Haosen leveled the count in the 12th.
A report from the Aseanfootball.org drew adverse reactions from the regulars at Philfootball.info forum.
(here’s the link, http://www.philfootball.info/forum/index.php?a=topic&t=251)
The reason? The report said the Philippines asked the AFF not to reschedule the tournament to close to the Christmas season.
CEBUANO hopefuls will get a chance to shine for the national team as the RP Under-21 coach Bob Salvacion will drop by Cebu for a one-day trial on Jan. 29 at the San Roque Parish field in Mandaue City.
Salvacion is the head coach of the RP team that will play in the Bolkiah Cup in Brunei in early March.
Aside from the Cebuano hopefuls, CebuFA president Jonathan Maximo said the top prospects from Mindanao and Visayas will be traveling to Cebu to join the trials.
Team W D L P GD
Crazy Horse 5 1 - 16 24
Don Bosco Alumni 4 1 1 13 10
USJ-R 4 - 2 12 7
Queen City 3 - 3 9 1
Wild Cebu 3 - 3 9 -5
USPF 2 1 3 7 -2
San Roque FC 1 1 4 4 -15
Magone - - 6 0 -20
WITH still one round to go, only a miracle can stop Crazy Horse FC from bagging the 2nd Aboitiz Premier League title next week at the San Roque Parish grounds and the Japanese owned club can forget the stigma of losing last year’s title to just one goal.
Crazy Horse, owned by Yamato Ayabe, leads the eight-team league with 16 points, while the Don Bosco Alumni FC, coached by Neil Montesclaros, is second with 13.
Three points and 14 goals separate the top two teams and for Don Bosco to snatch the title, it needs to conspire with the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R), which is manned by mostly Bosconian alumni, and Queen City United.
FAVORITES Paref-Springdale, Don Bosco College-A (DBC-A) and Abellana National School (ANS) hacked out easy wins yesterday to pace the Aboitiz Boys 15 Cup at the San Roque Parish football field.
ANS pounced Center for International Education, 4-0; Springdale whipped host San Roque FC, 5-0; and DBC gave FC Inter Cebu some neat lesson in an 8-0 bashing.
With the win, Springdale solidified its hold of the top spot in Group A with a perfect 15 points from five games, while San Roque stays at second with 10 points.
The problem with Philippine football in particular and Philippine sports (or put here whatever you want) in general, is that nobody is ever wrong.
Everybody is right. Everybody is correct. Everybody is doing his own thing for love of the game.
The first month of the year has been quite a roller coaster ride for Philippine football. Both in and out the field.
First, there was that unfortunate injury to Ali Borromeo in the opening minutes of the Malaysia game, resulting to an 0-4 loss, and another 0-4 rout to Thailand in the second game.
