FINALLY, after weeks of bleak news with two clubs folding, Philippine football has something to cheer about and be proud of after Ceres Negros stunned the Brisbane Roar, 3-2, in the AFC Champions League qualifiers. This is the same club that took the best Global FC had to offer and returned some, 6-0, last year.
So embarrassing was the result for the Australian club that it’s been marked as a new low this season and has renewed calls for the resignation of the Roar’s manager. Aside from the gulf of experience between the two clubs, what was highlighted was the fact that the Roar is in the middle of its season, while Ceres just resumed training after picking up the PFL trophy last month.
“Roar unravelled, jerseys and all, as they were bundled out of the tournament by Ceres despite playing in their home city. Fox news commentator Mark bosnich called the spectacle, ‘truly embarrassing,’” wrote 442 Australia.
And if you have a commentator going as far back to his U10 days to find comparison for Roar’s defeat then you know how big an impact Ceres had in Brisbane, whose players were having problems with their jerseys.
“Congratulations to Ceres-Negors, we saw how much it meant to them to win this game....Well, we saw how much it meant to Brisbane with that farcical episode with the jerseys...I really am speechless. I’ve never seen anything like that in my footballing life. Not even as a junior playing U10s in Sydney,” Bosnich told 442.
After dispatching the three-time A-League champion, it’s Chinese giants Tianjin Quanjian on Jan. 30. The Chinese club signed former Brazilian international Alexander Pato in 2017 for 15.5M pounds, or some P1.1 billion, an amount of money not even the whole PFF plus the six remaining clubs can pool together.
A win against the Chinese team is unlikely, but hey, after that stunning win against the Brisbane Roar, the sky’s the limit for Ceres Negros.
Rember, the club’s success is the success of the PFL, not just Negros, so I hope their game next week will get some TV time in the country.
The PFL is yet to start, it’s great that before the first match of the season, the whole community gets to rally behind Ceres.