By Karlo Sacamos
NO one is pulling away from the rest of the United Football League field.
Global FC made sure the UFL title race remained tight as it held off league-leading Loyola Meralco, 3-2, in a marquee rematch that lived up to its billing on Saturday night at the Emperador Stadium in Mckinley Hill.
The second-running side actually squandered a huge lead, but showed tremendous character down the stretch to pull off the hard-earned victory.
Instead of being seven points behind the Sparks, Global moved within a point of the league leaders with 25 after 11 games.
“We’ve made it possible for us to control our own destiny,” Global coach Leigh Manson said. “We don’t need to rely on other teams, so for us, it was huge.”
Mark Hartmann starred for Global as he fired the go-ahead goal—against his former team no less—and added an assist, while Milad Behgandom and Mexican recruit German Rodriguez completed the scoring party for the winners.
Not only did it avenge its 0-4 loss to the Sparks in the first round, but Global also dealt Loyola its first loss in almost six months or since September 27 when it lost to Kaya, 1-2, in the preseason.
Behgandom, the Iranian striker who has supplanted Izzo El-Habib from the starting lineup, unlocked the Loyola defense two minutes before first-half injury time, before Rodriguez, who just flew in the previous night, made an immediate impact with a header off a Hartmann cross to give Global a commanding lead in the 60th minute.
But the Sparks refused to fold as Lee Joo Young slotted home a nice pass from reigning UAAP MVP Paolo Bugas three minutes later, before Phil Younghusband scored from the penalty area to equalize the count in the 68th.
Hartmann, however, didn’t let Global’s gains go to waste as he scored the marginal goal, a deceivingly tame right-footed strike that Loyola goalkeeper Baba Sampana failed to save nine minutes before stoppage time.
Sparks coach Vince Santos rued his team’s missed chances early in the game as he grew wary of Global catching up in the standings.
“We never discount (Global) from the race, but it’s a three-round league,” Santos said. “I think it was the worst result we could get from the football we played.”
spin
They win because everytime they loose they get another Fil-Foreigner to improve their line up. The UFL should impose a rule to have 6 homegrown + 5 fil foreigner or foreign player. Our locals who grow and trained here are not given enough minutes to develop themselves and get proper exposures. We spend much money in hiring the services of our kababayans who grew up in another country.
ReplyDeleteIt is what it is 03:43. If the kababayans want to get exposures they better be working hard so they could improve and be good enough to have a shot. Our kababayans can't bring the level of UFL up, we need these foreign-based players.
ReplyDeletemay point si Anonymous9 March 2014 03:43 na dapat ay 6+5 kaasi kahit ano pa ang gagawin ng ating players na lokal hindi talaga sya mag i improve kung wlang syang mataas na exposure sa laro. Ang mentality kasi nating mga pinoy eh kung galing ka sa ibang bansa talagang magaling lahat. Wla na ba tayong bilib sa ating kapwa na dito lumaki at ipinanganak? Kailangan ba sambahin palagi ang mga taong galing sa ibang bansa kahit na may dugo itong pilipino? Kung may anak ka o kapatid, pinsan , o kahit sinong kaibigan na gustong mag UFL , may patutunguhan pa ba sila? Hindi ka ba masasayangan sa kanilang talento kung puro nlng banyaga at tubong ibang bansa at mga atleta sa UFL? Ang mentalidad ba natin ay "palaging alipin" sa sariling bayan? Imbes na i promote natin sila tayo pa ang bumibigay agad ng negatibong impresyon sa mga bata nating Pilipino sa puso, isip at salita.
ReplyDeleteBakit yung mga J -League, S -League, K- League, A- League , Thailand , Malaysia at Indonesia na pawang mga sakop ng AFC nakapag bigay ng exposure sa kanilang homegrowns kahit na limitado ang mga foreign players? Pagdating sa National team naman ay karamihan nila produkto ng kanilang bansa ito.
ReplyDeleteUFL needs the foreigners or fil-foreigners to boost the competitiveness of the league
ReplyDeleteYou can't blame anyone if the locals haven't had enough quality training or grassroots last decade, it's just that the football grassroots in this country were very poor back then
Yes we need them pero dapat konti lng sana kada team hindi yung halos buong team ay Fil Fors na.All you can see is "all about the competitiveness of the league" kahit hindi pa professional ito at the other end we sacrificed our own people.
ReplyDeleteyes we need them. FOR NOW. be patient guys.
ReplyDeleteThe question of filfors are getting silly.I wanted to post a more sensible comment, but i there is no use wasting any effort convincing some people what good these so called filfors to the game, the level of play, its popularity and its marketability.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that these people want to go back to the dark ages of philippine football when we were getting trashed double digits by teams like indonesia and syria and the days that we didnt have a league to call.
To add it the ridiculousness Lets add more restriction on filfors. Lets Impose a height or weight limit. Create a league with two "conferences" an all-filipino conference and a tournament with imports including filfors.
Another rules but equally stupid rule should also be imposed on the national team, a rule should states that only PURE filipinos whose parents are both PURE filipinos and both born in the country by PURE filipinos are eligible to play, but if an individuals born by filipino parents who is born outside the country should not be deemed eligible, even if they have already hold philippine nationality.
halatang fil foreigner ka Anonymous9 March 2014 12:22 dahil puro stupid lang alam mo.
ReplyDeleteWe were getting trashed by double digits before not by not having a fil foreigner on our team but the lack of quality training in the grassroots and the unpreparedness of the team and the corrupt system of PFF. Local players can play like their foreign brothers if they are given a chance. Your mentality is just more of a favoritism for those foreign speaking players. It won't be 'pang -masa' if we don't have many homegrown displaying its skill in the UFL.
ReplyDeleteLimit your whiteman worshipping. Focus on locals coz they will make ufl profitable. We dont need fil fors to make pacman and gilas and volleyball popular. Only locals
ReplyDeleteKahit anung fil-foreign pa yang maglaro sa ufl kadugo niyo parin yung mga yan - kahit kalahati lang
ReplyDeleteWag kayong umasta na purong pinoy kayo
Baka mga lolo niyo may dugo ring kastila o inchek
wlang isyu tungkol sa fil foreigners ang sa atin lang ay mabigyan ang dito talaga lumaki dahil trabaho ang hanap nila. Limitasyon lng ang isyu para matugunan ang mga wlang trabaho nating kababayan na taga dito talaga. Overpopulated na nga ang ating bansa dinagdagan pa ng mga tao galing ibang bansa na nakipag kupitensya sa pamumuhay ng taga dito. Wala naman kayong puso sa mga kapatid nating wlang trabaho.
ReplyDeleteAno?? Ang tingin mo di pinoy yung mga kababayan natin naghahanap ng kabuhayan sa ibang bansa? Ang tingin mo ba na hindi pinoy yung mga kababayan natin pinananak sa ibang bansa?? Overpopulated? 10m yung mga kababayan nating nakikipag sapalaran sa ibang bansa. Marami sa kanila doon na namumuhan at nagkaroon ng pamilya. Ang ibig nyo ba sabihin na ang mga anak nila ay walang karapatang maglaro o makapaghanapbuhay dito kung banyaga ang isa sa mga magulang nila?
ReplyDeleteKung ayaw nyo manoud ng laro na may fil-for di wag kayo mauod. Bahala kayo sa buhay niyo. Kung ayaw niyo yungbpatakaran ng ufl magbuo kayo ng sarili ninyong liga. All filipino pa kung gusto niyo. Bawal fil-for. Bawal half-half kahit dito pinanganak at may philippine passport.
ReplyDelete