CEBU, Philippines - Four Cebuano players made it to the final cut for the National Under-14 squad that will represent the country to the Festival of Football in Malaysia on June 2 to 6.
A total of 30 players underwent a rigid six-week training mainly at Don Bosco Boys Home in Liloan and only 22 got tickets to Malaysia.
The local talents who made it to the RP team were Springdale’s Jose Rafael Lipardo and Pericles Dakay Jr., Bright Academy’s Renko Gaudiel and Mandaue Technical Institute’s Clint Ligan.
The rest of the RP-14 lineup include Negros Occidental Football Association’s Francis Louise Polvorido, Jhoguev Ybanez and Mark Cui, Negros Oriental’s Angelo Gabriel Bahoyan, Raymund Santillan, Joey Adrian Dela Sierra and Ricky Ryan Ragay, Luzon’s Skie Carranza,Rean Villafuerte and Paolo Gabriel Alilam, Iloilo’s Miko Tirador, Renz Richard Portigo, Irvin Terazona and Zaldy Abraham and Bukidnon’s Bertrand Gregg Ramos III and Jericho Gonzales.
The team will also be composed of Cebuano coaching staff with Ricky Dakay as team manager, Raffy Musni as coordinator and Oliver Colina as head coach. The assistant coaches are Allan Medalla and Dennis Peñalosa.
Aside from the training, the RP pool also had a series of tuneup games against local squads in the secondary and collegiate divisions.
A total of 10 teams will see action led by host Malaysia. The rest include Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos, Vietnam, Australia and East Timor.
“The long term goal of PFF is to put the RP team in number four ranking in South Asia because right now we are at number six or seven. And to do that, we have to beat Malaysia and Myanmar,” said Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mari Martinez. – THE FREEMAN