Baguio squads roar in Smart football

BAGUIO City is fast gaining notoriety in the pitch after dismantling their rivals in the ongoing northern Luzon leg of the Men's Smart National Open Club Championship.

Both the under 19, under 23 and the men’s open squads will be qualifying for the next round which is the All Luzon group stage with the top two teams of each Northern and Southern Luzon groups for a four-team group stage for Luzon.


The top two of this group will represent Luzon in the final 8 for the national championships.

The men’s squad, despite losing to a Phil Younghusband led Rizal, 0-7, will also advance in the Luzon group stage.

Baguio earlier defeated Laguna, 4-0, before drubbing Tarlac, 3-1, then blanked Quezon Province, 9-0, before falling down in their Rizal match.

The under 19 meanwhile downed Laguna, 4-2, and scored a 7-1 victory against Tarlac.

After a five-year hiatus, the Philippines Football Federation (PFF) finally organized the first official league – the Smart National Clubs Championship held in the different parts of the country.

The last nationwide competition was the National Men’s Open Tournament held in Bacolod City five years ago under the presidency of Juan Miguel Romualdez although plans for a similar competition under previous PFF president Jose Mari Martinez – who succeeded Romualdez – did not push through for a variety of reasons.

The top four teams from the Luzon cluster-qualifying round, the top team from each of the Mindanao group clusters, and the top two club teams from NCR, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao winners will advance to the finals which will be played in Manila from June 6 to 25.

The under 23 team will be seeing action on April 28 to 30 at UP Los Baños while the under 19 squad follows next. (Roderick Osis)

Published in the Sun.Star Baguio newspaper on April 21, 2011.