Global, Ceres master foes to enter PFL final
AN all-Visayan final was forged in the inaugural season of the Philippines Football League (PFL) after Global Cebu FC and Ceres-Negros FC came out on top of their respective semifinal pairings.
Global, the fourth- seeded team entering the semis, fashioned out a narrow 3- 2 victory on aggregate in their two-legged finals series over top- seeded FC Meralco Manila while Ceres was a 3-1 aggregate winner over Kaya FC-Makati.
The yellow and blue completed its conquest of Meralco by hacking out a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their semifinals on Saturday night at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in follow-up to its 2-1 win in the first leg the previous week.
Meralco had a good start as Curt Dizon found the bottom of the net two minutes into the contest.
But much like in the first leg, Global would stay firm and competitive despite falling behind early.
It put itself in several good scoring opportunities and continued to take the fight to Meralco.
Global’s resilience finally paid off in the 85th minute when Rufo Sanchez broke through to level the count at 1-1.
Meralco tried to get back the goal thereafter but Global would not allow it to do so to secure the aggregate victory.
Following their win, Global coach Akbar Nawas said they were lucky to have been able to hold off Meralco, which they consider as a dangerous team, and gave credit to his players for staying the course.
“With this team you know you can always get a goal back. The players stuck to the game plan and played as instructed,” said Mr. Nawas.
For Meralco, which paced the standings for much of the regular season, the loss was a tough one and admitted they could have done better in the playoff round.
“We had chances in transition but we were not able to complete them because our front players were too wide,” said Meralco coach Caslib afterwards in explaining what did it for them in the second leg.
CERES ADVANCES
Ceres, for its part, was pushed to the limit by Kaya but managed to extricate eventually to advance and win, 2-1, in the second leg of its own semifinal series.
“The Busmen” were first to the scoreboard with Bienvenido Maranon punching through with a header in the 30th minute.
But Kaya would response 13 minutes later as Antonio Ugarte scored to tie the score as the match headed into the halftime break.
Iain Ramsay gave Ceres the go-ahead goal in the 78th minute to make it 2-1, a lead that they would keep all the way until the final whistle.
The victory assured Bacolodbased Ceres a spot in the PFL final after its 1-0 stunner in the first leg.
Global and Ceres will dispute the PFL title on Dec. 16 while Meralco and Kaya play for third also on the same date. Time and venues are still to be confirmed.
For barging into the PFL final, Global and Ceres also earned spots in the AFC Cup.