By Jack Biantan
THE lone representative of the Land of Promise to the Philippine Football League (PFL), the Davao Aguilas will have a strong team when the league opens on April 22. Davao Aguilas chief executive officer Chito Manuel said that tryouts for aspiring young professional footballers from Mindanao had already started at their home field, the Tagum Sports Stadium in Tagum, Davao del Norte. Although he admits that everything is "rush-rush" now, Manuel said the team’s head coach Melchor Anzures and assistant coach Lalas Carreon are busy building up the team from scratch. They are also conducting tryouts today at the Agro pitch in Davao City. Manuel said the Aguilas have the support of the Davao del Norte Regional FA and the Davao City FA. Manuel also added that they will field in an All-Filipino team and vowed that they will get the best talents from Mindanao. “Our all-Pinoy team will not allow us to become whipping boys in the league,” Manuel said. It will be a tall order for the Davao Aguilas against the top clubs like Global, Stallions, Ceres, and Loyola Meralco, in the PFL. With less than two months to go before kick-off, coach Anzures and the team management obviously face great challenges. But life in Mindanao is always full of challenges. Let’s just enjoy the ride and welcome the entry of the Davao Aguilas to the PFL. Let us also hope that they will fly high and succeed.
Read more: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/sports/2017/02/19/biantan-davao-aguilas-vow-build-strong-team-526642
Brunei's squad against Russia
1 day ago
Many are gonna like this team especially that 'All Filipino' approach.
ReplyDeleteI think the max ceiling of this team will be to generate some upsets while still ending at the bottom of the league. This team is just coming into existence with inexperienced and untested players, coaches and managers, but is expected to move mountains as the overall tone of this article suggests. People really shouldn't pressure this team but need to give it time to grow and gel together. It's going to be a really though road with some blowouts in the 5-0 range against teams like Global or Ceres along the way and one upset here or there but nothing more. But as the tone of this article suggests I think this team sadly won't be given that time and might end up like other ambitious and far too early hyped projects such as Pachanga, Manila Jeepney or Cebu Queen City. JP Voltes showed everyone last season how it should be done when you are a small club and they should take that as an example.
ReplyDeleteDon't underestimate the heart and passion of the players from Mindanao. They want to be different and you should respect that.
ReplyDeleteNo iligan and no bukidnon-cdo fA. Only single club from mindanao. Davao eagle are very potential to spurs homegrown pride on the upcoming PFL. Possible na maging favorite and famous club in the future sa PFL. It also may spike the interest of non football fans kasi all homegrown line up.
ReplyDeleteNot very optimistic with those statements
ReplyDeleteWe don't want another club erased from the history books
Not underestimating local talents but they really need to play alongside imports if they really want to make a difference for the league and the games they will play
Experience, money and quality will be needed
Intimidation against established and experienced clubs will also play a factor on this team's fixtures
Because you are a pessimist. Every club has its own identity - their style of play, coaching method, etc.. Most teams who have not enough budget will always rely in homegrowns and if their player will blossom into a National player and some teams will have an interest then the transfer fee will help the team in financially and would later buy a foreign player in the future. Different teams have different approach to financial expenses in buying and selling players. So don't say there's intimidation as the people who invested in Davao Agilas knows what they are going to. Let us support each teams either they be all homegrowns or majority of their line up are foreigners because GloBal Cebu can't be Davao AGilas or the other way around. Will just wait and see what the 1st PFL season would be like and not make assumptions that this or that teams will be relegated due to no presence of Foreign beauties.
ReplyDeleteA) There will be no relegation so that's one less thing to worry about.
DeleteB) I'm not being pessimistic, just realistic and in no way am I saying that this team is going to suck nor that going for an All-Filipino team is a bad thing. I think it's good and maybe this team can become like tge Athletic Bilbao (who only sign Basque players) of the Philippines. But come on people. Every sports fan with even an inkling of knowledge on sports competitions knows that a newly formed team is going to struggle against higher level and more experienced competition. But that's part of the steep learning curve for this team and that's what sports is all about: You learn from your defeats and try to get better from game to game. But apparently everyone wants this team to bypass all that and go straight to beating the shit out of Global and Ceres (who have foreign players). This team will need time and it will take years until they can achieve something, while having that underdog status and that's OK! But fans need to give this team that time and not start to complain or question the team or the management if they lose games (and some they will inevitably lose badly). I'm willing to give this team that time and maybe that makes me even more optimistic and not naive like everyone else here who believes that this team has a guaranteed ticket to instant championships.
We don't want teams withdrawing in mid-season
DeleteWe don't want teams saying we can't compete
PFF should learns from mistakes of the past
To the people of Mindanao, excuse me for saying this, I'm just being pragmatic. As a foreign player and relying only on global news, I will be worried about the terrorist activity in Mindanao. I hope I'm totally wrong for the sake of Mindanao football.
ReplyDeleteAny football team coming being put together in different parts of the philippines is a positive Werther with foreign players or all filipino.its a difficult journeys because football still in its infancy in the philippines but I won't be surprise if they spring a few surprises.but I have no doubt in my mind that if football continues to develop and get proper support in 15 - 20 years time we will export players in Asia and Europe.
ReplyDelete