NEGROS ORIENTAL, ILOILO CLOSE VISAYAS FINALS ABLAZE

Courtesy of Sun Star Newspaper (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/)

Tuesday, December 23, 2003 issue

by GLENN C. MICHELENA, Sun.Star Correspondent

WITH the Visayas cast to the national finals settled earlier in the tournament, two ousted teams, Negros Oriental and Iloilo, played a spirited game worthy of being the curtain closer of the 2003 Philippine Football Federation (PFF) National Men’s Championship–Visayas Regional Finals at the Barotac Nuevo field in Iloilo.

Negros Oriental defeated Iloilo, 4-2, in the shootout overtime period and closed its uneventful journey of the competitions with a win.

While the Bacolod squad crushed the depleted Cebu FA-Hapee squad, 4-0, in the day’s other non-bearing match.

Despite the debacle, Cebu is still on a positive mode. The Cebu squad and Negros Occidental made the national finals by virtue of their top-two finish.

With only 11 players showing up for the game, Cebu’s problems compounded after one of its players got disqualified with a red card, leaving Cebu with only 10 players to work with most of the game.

“We are happy with the team’s performance,” said Cebu Team official Maxi Maximo. “Our goal was to improve on the team’s performance and qualify for the national finals and we accomplished both.”

The tournament, which ended without giving out awards and recognitions, was staged as the qualifying ground for the national finals.