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It was as if the Philippine Football League (PFL) never left, as the top two favorites, United City Football Club (UCFC) and Kaya FC, earned 1-0 victories in their respective opening matches on Wednesday at the National Training Center in Carmona, Cavite.
UCFC topped Azkals Development Team (ADT) in the first contest of the day, with Ott brothers, Manny and Mike, combining for the first goal of the long-delayed 2020 league season.
A disciplined display of the ADT was undone in the 25th minute after Manny found his younger brother Mike outside the area. Mike threw the ball to prepare for the half volley, which was hit beyond the reach of ADT goalkeeper Quincy Kammeraad.
UCFC boasted 79 percent of possession and limited the young ADT team to a single shot in the first 45 minutes of play, but the Azkals’ young prospects came out with renewed vigor after the break.
The ADT came out of the half more comfortable with the ball and managed to ask questions of the UCFC defense.
It wasn’t easy to navigate to the end for UCFC, with Manny Ott showing a direct red card in the 84th minute after a dangerous tackle on Simen Lyngbo. With a one-man lead, ADT forced UCFC goalkeeper Anthony Pinthus to make a pair of saves in the dying moments.
UCFC held out against the ADT in the end, but their head coach Frank Muescan was quick to congratulate the young Azkal hopefuls on their resurgence in the second half.
“We give credit to the ADTs who gave their best. I thought we were going to get them in the first half, but they are very resilient,” Muescan said. “They held it and gave it their all until the last part of the game.”
So Iloilo rains on Maharlika Manila’s debut
Kaya FC tied their rivals UCFC with a 1-0 win over newly created club Maharlika Manila FC in the evening’s match.
Maharlika was hit early in the game with midfielder Serge Kaole forced off the field due to injury in just the fifth minute.
Despite the erosion of wave after wave of attacks, it was Maharlika who came closest to breaking the stalemate first after a fight in the Kaya area saw Charlie Beaton’s attempt blocked by central defender Carlyle Mitchell in the 22nd minute. MJ Libre also saw his deflected attempt go over Kaya’s crossbar four minutes later.
The first goal finally came in the 29th minute, after a mocking ball entering Maharlika’s area found its way to Jayson Panhay, who launched a shot over Bandeken Fong to give Kaya a 1-0 lead.
The remainder of the game saw Kaya squander a catalog of chances to secure the result, but a combination of stingy defense and Maharlika’s rare opportunity kept the game on a razor’s edge.
Kaya did enough to maintain maximum points in his first outing of the 2020 season, but head coach Yu Hoshide was not happy with his ending.
“The most important thing is the three points, so at least we get the three points. Of course we have to score more, we had a lot of opportunities,” Hoshide said. “So next game, hopefully we have a lot of chances and score a lot.”
The PFL resumes on Saturday at the same venue with Stallion Laguna facing Maharlika Manila at 9am, Mendiola 1991 will attempt to defeat United City at 4:30 pm and Kaya will face the ADT challenge at the 8:00 start. p.m
