TWO massive wins from two of the country’s biggest clubs to kick off the 2020 AFC Cup group stage -- Filipino football fans couldn’t have gotten a better gift for Valentine’s Day.
Ceres Negros FC led the way with a 4-0 drubbing of Cambodian visitors Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng FC at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Group G. Kaya FC Iloilo followed suit with a 2-0 shocker over hosts Shan United at the Thuwanna YTC Stadium in Group H.
What a dream start, especially for Kaya.
After a long break and with new personnel on and off the field, there was no telling how Kaya would perform in its first competitive match at the international stage. But the hungry Kaya Lions executed their game plan to the letter against the Burmese champions.
Under the scorching 37-degree afternoon heat -- the match kicked off at around 3:30 p.m. Myanmar time -- Kaya tried to kill the game early, and nearly succeeded. In the third minute, Takumi Uesato wasted a chance point blank, sending the ball wide to the relief of the Shan United goalkeeper who had just averted an own goal off a defender. Simone Rota also nearly broke the deadlock when he directed a wicked header that veered outside of goal.
But Shan United wanted to win on home soil badly, and to say they played rough was an understatement. In the fourth minute, goalkeeper Louie Casas had just come out of the penalty box to head clear a long ball when winger Thet Paing Zwe came rushing with a flying kick, his right boot landing square on the shot-stopper’s chest.
Casas did flinch, but he stood his ground, beat his chest to check, and appealed to the referee for a foul. Behind him, it was Zwe who lay in a heap face down for a moment, perhaps wondering what wall he had just run into.
Shan were rough but Casas and his teammates were tougher. And Kaya thwarted everything the desperate hosts threw at them.
Shan just couldn’t penetrate Kaya’s solid back four, the returning Rota partnering well with fellow center back Carlyle Mitchell.
Up front Horikoshi Sato, Jovin Bedic and Uesato terrorized the defense with their counters, but it was the subs -- Arnel Amita and Eric Giganto -- who came up big. And Amita was responsible for creating the two goals that sealed Shan’s fate.
In the first one, he was brought down inside the box leading to a penalty that Bedic converted in the 74th minute. Eleven minutes later, an off-balance Amita pushed the ball toward the path of Giganto, who deftly slotted Kaya’s second from a tight angle to seal the win.
With head coach Oliver Colina and Yu Hoshide at the helm, Kaya displayed team work, discipline and tactical brilliance to shut out a relentless opponent in hostile territory.
Shan had most of the ball possession, but it was Kaya who dictated the tempo of the match with its controlled aggression.
Now let’s see if Kaya can repeat the feat against Singapore’s Tampines Rovers when the two sides meet on Feb. 26 in Manila.