The Derby game
between Loyola Meralco Spaks FC and Ceres De La Sale FC in the #UFLCup2016 that
ended 2:1 in favor of Ceres FC lived up to the expectation! It was a game you
should have watched live in Rizal Memorial stadium if you missed it!
Ceres started the game with plenty of confidence and looked
positive going forward, however, the Sparks soon got to the pace of the game
and worked hard to deny Ceres midfield player’s time on the ball to effectively
release to the lively front pair.
Ceres right winger had pace and mobility and was able to get
across the Sparks left fullback most times. On the right hand side, Sparks did
a great job in making sure that they double up defenders to deny any quick
penetration especially from Stephan Schrock who was busy, dangerous and was
capable of creating something for himself or his team mate in the box.
Sparks had a great scoring chance when one of the strikers
took on the Ceres defenders close to the half way line but they recovered and
forced him to the corner line when he failed to shoot in the box.
Ceres misses penalty but Carli de Murga scored
on the followup the first goal of the game at 35 minutes and the first half
ended 1:0. Sparks made it 1:1 at 65 when the substitute Jinggoy Valmayor saw his shot go passed Ceres goalkeeper in a dramatic
way.
Towards the end of the game, Sparks played
with 10 men after one of their players was shone a straight red card.
Despite being one man down, one of the Sparks
players got himself distracted by Ceres player around the half way line and did
not respond well to the team defending and I believe that caused Ceres Carli de Murga scoring his second and the final goal of the day in the 90+5 minutes from a corner cross!
Sparks goalkeeper was confident when coming off his line and
made some excellent saves. Ceres goalkeeper was great with his feet but the
mistake he made in the Sparks only goal was embarrassing.
Both teams went home with lots of positives but there are rooms
for improvement.
Ceres will need to be more clinical in their shooting and
finishing around the box. There were lots of missed chances. Ceres team should
master Schrock’s runs! He made some excellent runs but players failed to
deliver that killer pass.
Sparks should shoot more from outside if they could not
penetrate inside.
Fans from both teams were fabulous and I encourage other
teams to get their fans to the stadium next games.
I enjoyed the game and I just put down this from what I saw
without accurate statistics.
Coach
