I MISSED the quarterfinal matches of the Aboitiz Cup men’s open due to a personal commitment, but I sure will not miss the semifinal matches today, Dec. 12. still at the Cebu City Sports Center.
Both match-ups offer intriguing subplots and, as cliche as it sounds, it can’t get any better than this.
You have the youth-laden University of San Carlos (USC) against Don SacreDale, the new team in town (but they aren’t exactly a bunch of new kids in Cebu football) and on the other side, you have Leylam against Makoto.
USC and Don SacreDale are sister teams as both are sponsored by Queen City United, with Don SacreDale—which has players from Don Bosco, Ateneo and Springdale, hence the name—designated as the B team.
But today, I don’t think Niko Villacin, Leonard Tan and Pomeroy Veloso will be looking at USC as their A counterpart. They’re looking at the Warriors as simply that team that stands in their way to a final showdown.
Another interesting subplot is one coach who will be watching the match in the sideline—Mario Ceniza of Springdale. He molded Villacin in Springdale and some of the other players in Don SacreDale but I don’t think his loyalties will be split since his son Enzo Ceniza is playing for USC. It has been a while since I saw Enzo play and seeing him during USC’s 8-0 dismantling of DB Magone was a thing of beauty, especially his passing.
Niko has served his suspension in the quarterfinals—that was the first time I’ve heard of the level-headed Niko getting a red card—so there’s no manpower issues for both teams.
The two teams’ coaches also share the same space at the Cebu Football Association—Allan Medalla of USC and Brian Eborda of Don SacreDale—and I’m sure both have been ribbing each other ever since they hurdled their quarterfinal matches. Don SacreDale eased out the University of Cebu, while USC provided the drama of the quarterfinal round after fighting back from 2-0 down against the University of the Visayas (UV), 3-2. Boy, what a disappointment it must have been to UV, which also lost to USC in the Cesafi finals.
The other semifinal is equally intriguing. Though I’m not that familiar with Makoto, I saw a couple of their games in the professionals division of the SunStar Cup, where they won all their group stage matches before losing to Erco in the semis.
They also have a couple of Africans in the squad and we all know that Leylam has a lot of talented African players in their team, too. Leylam defeated another import-laden team, Southwestern University of Glen Ramos in the quarterfinals, 2-1, while Makoto walked all over the University of San Jose-Recoletos, 7-0, showing their offensive power against an out-matched college team.
In fact, Makoto won all its matches so far by an average of close to six goals, while conceding none. It has scored 23 goals in four matches—16 in the three group stage matches—while its defense has been perfect!
Can it maintain that record against Ene Famous and Leylam? We shall see today.
Who do I think will win the semis? Let’s all find out shall we.