Mert Altinoz (left) of Cebu FC celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal in their home game of the PFL. | Photo from Frenzy Claire Sadanguel via Glendale Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines— The Cebu Football Club (CFC) Gentle Giants treated Cebuano football fans with a resounding victory against the heavily-favored Kaya FC Iloilo, 3-2, in their first home game of the Philippines Football League’s (PFL) second round of competition at the Dynamic Herb-Borromeo Sports Complex in South Road Properties, here.
The victory marked the Gentle Giants’ first victory against Kaya in the PFL. At the same time, they dislodged Kaya from the top spot of the team standings after earning three points and avenged their Aug. 14, 0-3, loss against the latter at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
In total, the Gentle Giants have 20 points from 6 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat, while Kaya suffered their second defeat with 6 wins for 18 points to drop at third place in the team standings.
United City FC is trailing Cebu FC at the No. 2 spot with 19 points after beating Mendiola FC 1991 on Saturday, 2-0, at their new home pitch, the New Clark City Athletics Stadium in Tarlac.
During the match, Kaya tallied the first goal courtesy of Robert Lopez Mendy, who eventually scored a brace or two goals in the entire match. He logged his first goal at the 18th minute by capitalizing on Cebu FC’s snoozing defense.
However, Mendy’s goal woke up the Gentle Giants and scored the next three goals with Turkish ace midfield Mert Altinoz scoring a brace of his own at the 33rd and 47th minutes.
The league’s leading goal scorer Arda Cinkir of Turkey scored Cebu FC’s third goal at the 50th minute.
Not to be outfought, Mendy Lopez scored Kaya’s second goal at the 83rd minute. Kaya tried to retaliate with relentless attacks, but time wasn’t on their side, giving the victory for the home team in front of the roaring Cebuano crowd.
“It’s really important to play in front of your fans and your family because it gives us extra motivation. Like what I said a while ago, playing in Manila, we didn’t have this amount of people, so it’s really nice. It motivated us. As you can see (from) our performance today, we’re able to give our best,” said Altinoz of CFC Gentle Giants, who was named the “Man of the Match.”
Kaya’s head coach, Yu Hoshide, who once donned Global Cebu FC in the PFL in 2017 expressed disappointment in his team for not bouncing back after the three straight goals of their opponent.
“We’re disappointed, the players didn’t bounce back. The timing was really bad for us,” said Hoshide during the post-match presser.
Hoshide also lamented on the missed crucial calls for Kaya that would’ve been a game changer during the match.
“Honestly, I respect everyone, including the officials, but the referees didn’t give us a call, but the players needed to continue to play, at the end of the day, the referee is the one to decide. My frustrations and the players also, that they didn’t continue playing despite the missed calls,” added Hoshide.
Meanwhile, Mehmet Kakil, head coach of Cebu FC Gentle Giants, said during the post match presser that they had been preparing for this moment to play in front of the home crowd.
“We’ve been preparing for this even before the start of the league and it was a long way for us, but we adapted, and we kept up. This is the first time to open our doors to entire Cebu, we’re very happy to give back to Cebu. It’s not about us, it’s about giving back to Cebu and it really feels good,” said Khakil.
Cebu FC Gentle Giants will defend its turf against the United City FC on Oct. 15, 2022. The last time these two powerhouse teams played was on Aug. 20 at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
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