A NEW king of club football in the country is set to be crowned after Global was ousted from the Philippine Football Federation-Smart Club Championships following its shock 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Ceres at the Rizal Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.
Global owner Dan Palami said his team lacked offensive bite, although he was also quick to give credit to their Negros Occidental-based opponent’s defense in the defeat that ended their reign as champion.
“We have to congratulate Ceres for a sturdy defense especially their goalkeeper who had a lot of saves,” he said. “Of course, when there’s a combination of good goalkeeping and poor finishing, then it’s a bad combination for us. I think we should have done better.”
“We should have to take this bitter pill, learn from it, and look forward to the (UFL) League,” added the businessman from Tacloban, who also manages the Philippine men’s football team. “It’s back to the drawing board. Basically, everything was right except the finishing.”
Palami also rued some questionable calls, saying his team will write a letter addressed to the PFF, the referees, and the match commissioners to point out the mistakes.
Palami made special mention of two instances, first when the officials seemed to have cut stoppage time short after they signaled a four-minute time added on; and second, when a Ceres booter was not given a double yellow card after he didn’t go to a stretcher when he asked for it late in the first half.
“We will write a letter not to protest the result but to (remind authorities) that in this kind of game, the referees should be more, say, up to it,” Palami said.
“I don’t want to take this win away from Ceres on poor officiating but really, if we want to move forward as a league, a country, it should not only be the teams improving themselves, but most especially the officiating because you invest a lot in the teams and poor officiating takes away your chances of winning.”
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