UNITED City FC may technically be a new club, but for its core players, the championship tradition continues.
UCFC clinched the 2020 Philippines Football League (PFL) championship with still one match to play after defeating Stallion Laguna FC, 7-1, on Friday night at the PFF National Training Center in Carmona, Cavite.
United City picked up its fourth win in as many matches in dominating fashion once again on their way to sealing the crown in its debut season in the PFL.
For most of the players, however, it won’t be their first after UCFC obtained ownership of Ceres-Negros FC and signing most of the players of the Busmen led by Stephan Schrock and Bienve Maranon in the lead-up to the bubble.
The Busmen won the three previous editions of the PFL.
The new club will officially take the 2020 trophy and a seat in the AFC Champions League on Monday after it faces Kaya FC-Iloilo on Monday.
Maranon scored a hat trick, while Mike Ott added two goals in a match where United held a slim 2-1 lead at the half.
Ott opened the scoring in the sixth minute but Stallion made the match interesting after Ibrahim N’Dour equalized in the 12th. United got the lead back after a Takashi Odawara header off a cross by Hikaru Minegishi in the 25th minute.
It was all United in the second half.
Ott made it 3-1 in the 54th followed by Maranon’s first goal in the 58th as the floodgates opened for UCFC coached by Frank Muescan. Maranon connected again in the 66th and 71st followed later by OJ Porteria.
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