PFF U19 B boys national football tilt blasts off Wednesday in Cebu

CVFA and PFF officials along with regional FA coaches and team captains pose for a group photo during the presser of the PFF U-19 National Championships Group B tournament at the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club. | Photo by Glendale Rosal

CEBU CITY, Philippines— Exciting football action invades Cebu as the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) U19 Group B Boys National Championship 2023 kicks off Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at the Dynamic Herb-Borromeo Sports Complex.

Six competing football teams headed by the host, Central Visayas Football Association (CVFA) vowed to give their all for the top two spots at stake for the national-level semifinals later this year.

In a presser on Tuesday evening, June 20, at the Alta Vista Golf and Country Club, all of the competing teams’ coaches remain upbeat despite their reported lack of preparation.

For his part, CVFA’s head coach Glenn Ramos told his team to treat every match as if it were the finals.

“This is a challenge for us in CVFA because all of the teams competing are very good teams. Our ultimate goal is to make it to the finals. As I said, it’s a challenge for Cebuanos to get into the finals in Cavite. So, we will treat each match as a championship match with these teams,” said Ramos.

Ramos steered the team last year into Division 1 of the PFF’s U-19 rankings after placing as runners-up in the PFF Division 2 National Football Championships last year in Zamboanga.

Ramos revealed that his team roughly had a month to prepare which isn’t sufficient to reach their target. However, his team and the CVFA managed to pull off all the resources and time to come up with their short training camp.

Earlier, CVFA’s marketing head, Josephril Partosa admitted that they lack the funds to support the team’s essentials, but they’re still thankful to PFF for giving them the chance to host this major football tournament and to the generous groups and individuals who helped them.

Meanwhile, Panay Island Football Association head coach Noel Casilao also admitted that his teams haven’t prepared fully for this tournament as they’re only limited to training during the weekends due to the academic responsibilities of his players.

Still, their will to win will be their motivation for the tournament.

“We have the umbrella of 10 clubs, we have a representative from each club, we started our training camp during weekends due to classes. Let’s hope for the best, I’m sure, we might have long or short preparation, everyone wants to win,” said Casilao.

All of the other coaches from South Cotabato-Sarangani-General Santos City Football Association (Socsargen FA), Camiguin-Misamis Oriental Regional Football Association (Cmorfa), Zamboanga-Dipolog Football Association (Zandifa), and Davao South Regional Football Association (Davao South-FA) shared the same sentiments as Casilao regarding their preparation.

On the other hand, CVFA president Engineer Rodney Orale said that Cebu City’s hosting of the PFF U-19 Group B footbal tilt wouldn’t be possible without the support of the Cebu City local government, the PFF, and their generous sponsors who helped them hurdle their financial struggles in hosting the tournament.

“We will bring the best hosting in Cebu with the help of my members of the governors of the CVFA. We decided to host this kind of event, we know that Cebu City local government is also helping us, in terms of transportation, and accommodation. We had a lot of groups that tried to help the Cebu football community,” said Orale.

Also present during the presser was the tournament’s match commissioner Robin Cainglet and the rest of the PFF officials that will supervise the matches.

The first match on Wednesday pits Socsargen FA versus Cmorfa at 7:30 AM, followed by Panay Island FC against Zandifa at 9:45 AM, while CVFA takes on Davao-South FA at 1:00 PM.    /rcg

 RELATED STORIES: 

Chinese pitch invader detained after hugging Messi

PFF U19 boys Group B national tournament starts this June in Cebu