Fresh from a rousing debut in Iloilo, Kaya FC–Iloilo are looking to keep their red hot form going, as they gun for a fifth-straight win in the Philippines Football League. Just three days after a successful first match at the Iloilo Sports Complex, Kaya head straight back to action against Global Cebu on Wednesday (May 23, 2018), 4pm, at the Biñan Football Stadium.
While Iloilo’s main concern is managing the quick turnaround of games, Global’s problem is the opposite — a lack of field time. Cebu last played on April 29, in a 3-0 defeat to Davao Aguilas. Since then, financial woes have taken their toll on the club. On May 2, the club failed to travel to Iloilo to play Kaya. Then, they had their May 12 match against Stallion Laguna postponed in order to have more time to sort out their issues. After a tumultuous couple of weeks, the highly decorated club is ready to get back into action, albeit, without key players Rufo Sanchez, Wesley dos Santos, and Paolo Bugas.
“We’re climbing up a mountain based on our standing at the moment,” said Global Cebu head coach Marjo Allado, quoting one of his players from a past press conference. “At the moment some of our main players have left. Of course we’ll play tomorrow with the remaining players that we have. Those players are top players, especially the two young Filipino players.”
“We went back to training last Sunday. For almost three weeks we didn’t have official training, so in terms of fitness we’re maybe 70-80%, just to be honest,” he added.
Despite the issues plaguing Wednesday’s opponents, Kaya FC–Iloilo enter the contest expecting nothing less than the usual challenge from a familiar rival.
“It will be like all the other games we’ve played against Global. Every time we play them it’s a tough game, no matter what,” said Kaya’s Robert Lopez Mendy, scorer of a recent hat-trick in Iloilo. “What happened to them (financial issues) can happen to any team too. I think that’s not a big deal for us [once the football starts]. I think it’s going to be a good game, like we’re used to playing against them because, they’re still a big team, no matter what. They have the players for that.”
Head coach Noel Marcaida was equally dismissive of any notion that Kaya would take Wednesday’s match lightly.
“Global Cebu have been through these situations so many times. Although they have players that have already left the club, still they have players that want to showcase their talent. We can’t take their team lightly tomorrow. For us, we need to continue what we’re doing, we need to keep our intensity, our pace. We want to keep our winning streak alive,” he said.
“As of the moment, we’re just managing the recovery of the players. We trained last night and the intensity was really good. Players who haven’t played too many minutes played really well. The intensity was great, and the morale is really high. ” said Marcaida.
Wednesday’s match is the battle between top and bottom. Kaya FC–Iloilo currently leads the PFL standings with 16 points from eight outings, while Global have only a solitary point from five matches. The game will be streamed live over PFLTV.ph.
http://www.kayafc.com/news/kaya-fc-iloilo-takes-on-global-cebu-looks-to-extend-winning-streak-to-five/
