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Monday, July 24, 2006
Queen City beats San Roque
In a battle between the title-holders and the young contenders, the defending champion Queen City United barely survived the San Roque Football Club, 1-0, to solidify its title defense in the Aboitiz Women's Open tournament at the San Roque Parish football grounds.
Queen City United, which finished runner-up in last year's Philippine Football Federation National Women's Open Championships in Davao City, now leads the four-team field with two wins and only needs a draw in its final match to take its second straight women's crown.
On the other hand, Mulbachs, the second-seeded team, lost to the University of San Carlos, 2-1, after starting with only eight players in the second match yesterday. USC scored both goals from penalties.
Mulbachs is at the bottom of the standings with two losses, while USC and San Roque hold a one-win and one-loss card with San Roque getting second place on better goal difference.
Seven goals
Queen City will play Mulbachs next week, while San Roque will face USC. The only chance left for San Roque to bag the title is to hope Mulbachs beat USC by seven goals—an improbable task since Queen City routed USC, 6-1.
Christine Fuentes scored the lone goal of the match after redirecting Marlou Solon's pass in the 37th minute to get past San Roque's Iris Meca.
Still San Roque, coached by Eleazer Toledo, refuse to buckle down as it pressed on in the second half, stretching the QCU defense.
Luck also played a key role in the final minutes as Queen City hit the bar twice in a one-minute goal mouth scramble.
A Queen City shot bounced off the top bar into a waiting Solon, whose header also hit the right post, ricocheting to Mabelle Guimaray, whose quick header sailed harmlessly wide.
Conditioning
San Roque's superior conditioning also showed in the final minutes of the match as Christine Mantos kept on her forays from left flank, while a few of the Queen City defenders could barely keep up with them but the defense managed to hold on for their win.
"Skills wise they have the advantage but in terms of conditioning, we are better," Toledo said of his wards in an earlier interview.
However, Queen City earned a wasteful red card in the dying minutes after Kurt Acre sent off Jan Salac in injury time.
"Ganiha ra sya sige reklamo kada tawag nako, syagitan ta," Acre said. (ML)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 24, 2006 issue)
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