Tuesday, September 26, 2006 Capiz 11 backs out of U-19 regional finals By Henry C. Villalva
FOUR Visayan teams are seeing action in the September 29-31, 2006 All-Visayas Under-19 Regional Football championship which will be staged at the West Negros College pitch.
A fifth team from the province of Capiz, which was earlier announced to be seeing action in this Philippine Football Federation (PFF)-calendared tournament for the first time, has backed out, according to Negros Occidental Football Association (Nofa) tournament committee member Joseph Gensaya.
Nofa, headed by Representative Carlos Cojuangco (Fourth District, Negros Occidental) is playing host to the three-day series which will choose the top two Visayan squads that will advance to the 2006 Adidas Cup U-19 National Finals in Zamboanga City later this year.
West Negros College, which topped the recent Nofa Under-19 provincial championship at the expense of arch rival University of St. La Salle in the finals, is assured of a built-in home crowd cheering for the Negrense team during the three-day competition which will likewise feature the provincial U-19 champions from Iloilo, Cebu and Negros Oriental.
WNC coach and former national team mainstay Norman Fegidero, Jr. told Sun.Star he is not yet ready to announce the final composition of the host squad since he is still trying to determine which among the players from other squads trying out for U-19 slots deserve to be named to the squad.
Standouts from University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, University of St. La Salle, Bago, Pontevedra and Victorias were earlier invited to try out for slots in the U-19 squad right after the culmination of the provincial Nofa championship won by WNC.
The Negrenses finished third in last year's national U-19 finals behind champion Davao and runner-up Iloilo during the tournament held at the Bago City Sports Complex pitch.
The squad composed of players from WNC and USLS salvaged some amount of pride when they defeated NCR in the battle for third place after missing a slot in the finals with a 2-1 heartbreak loss to the Ilonggos in the semis.
(September 26, 2006 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here. Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
