Cebu Football Club starts PFL season on Saturday
The new look of Cebu Football Club Gentle Giants. | Photo from CFC
CEBU CITY, Philippines —The Cebu Football Club (CFC) Gentle Giants will spend most of their Philippines Football League (PFL) season at home as they host 12 of their 14 matches at the Dynamic Herb-Borromeo Sports Complex, beginning tomorrow, Saturday, April 6.
The Gentle Giants, the first homegrown Cebu pro football club to reach the AFC Asian Cup, will host Loyola FC tomorrow at 5 p.m. to kickstart another chapter of their PFL season.
Team captain Baris Tasci says they will showcase a different kind of system for Cebuano football fans to watch this season, in addition to the 10 new players and coaching staff that reinforce the club.
“We have a lot of new and young players; they’re a good addition to the team. We have players from other countries, especially our players from the Netherlands. We are more dynamic this time. We have an attacking mentality this time because the previous season we weren’t that attacking that much,” said Tasci during CFC’s Media Day last Wednesday.
CFC signed new players, including Dutch-Filipino Rhino Manuel Nicolaas Gout and Guytho Marcus Renwick Mijland, who have played in several European leagues.
In addition to their Dutch players, they signed two new Turkish players, Devrim Ali Yanik and Yusuf Cekic, and three homegrown Cebuano players, Glen Thomas Ramos, Kamil Amirul, and Erich Rafael Orale.
“This year, we’re trying to win the PFL championship, so we’ve got new players and coaches to improve. We will try our best and win the league,” added Tasci.
“Everyone’s motivated and eager to really win. We missed the Copa last year, and everyone’s hungrier this year. I’m grateful to be the captain of this team. It’s really good. For the league also, it’s time to go outside Manila. So, it’s good for us that we get to play in our home stadium and front of our home crowd.”
Their new head coach and technical director, Memis Ozata of Turkey, is thrilled to start their campaign tomorrow against Loyola FC and showcase his system, which is known to be aggressive in the offense.
“I will try to play positive football. We will have more attacks. Every day, we train with my system. I want every one of my players to think positively. I love attacking, but we must also gain possessions. We want to score as many goals as possible, five in each game,” said Ozata.
“I’m very happy that I’m here. Football here has a different quality than in Europe. It was difficult for me to start training the team to play with my system. But now, I’m very happy that my players have adapted my system. The players listen very well, and they get better every day. Everywhere we go, they play better.”
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