Hold it in Cebu

Today we bid our last farewell to Col. Manuel R. Guevara (Retired), the recipient of the athletic saber when he graduated from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in 1954.

Sir Chappy, as he was fondly called, passed away the other Sunday. He was 81 years old. The interment is set this 12 noon at the Angelicum Garden of Angels in Mandaue City.

A requiem mass is set this 9 a.m. at the Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels along A.S. Fortuna St., Mandaue City and this will be followed by a short program.

Young blood shall carry on!

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Queen City United Football Club of Cebu still has one more game left to play in the United Football League (UFL) Cup.

The Cebu-based team, which was formed a few weeks prior to the start of the tournament earlier this month, is already out of the running after losing its games against Global FC, 0-3, and to Stallions FC, 0-7.

The game set this weekend against Pachanga FC was supposed to be the first game of QCU, but this was cancelled last October 9 due to the unplayable conditions of the University of Makati Field.

I talked with Glenn Quisido, president of the Cebu Amateur Football Club, the mother club of QCU, and he said that they are still asking that the game this weekend be played here as promised.

Glenn said that they were informed that the match will be held at the Rizal Memorial Field at 2 p.m. and have been told that it would be televised.

The problem with this is that the team was not able to purchase tickets in advance and the cost to go to Manila this weekend and return home would be around P9,000 per head. This trip alone would cost the team around P200,000 for fare alone as this is a peak season for travel due to the semestral break and the coming All Saints Day and All Souls Day celebration.

This weekend’s game is important for Pachanga as it will determine if the team will advance to the next round or not.

Currently, Stallions FC leads group C with six points courtesy of wins against Global and QCU.

Global is second with four points along with Pachanga, but has the edge in terms of goals made with 7 against 4 for Pachanga. 

Pachanga needs only a draw to advance as it would earn one point to put it one ahead of Global, which has already played all its games.

If Pachanga loses, then Global would advance to the round of 16.

It would be good to have the game played in Cebu so that the fans here can watch the game live and experience cheering for our Queen City United.

I hope that the UFL officials will agree to the request, which was actually something they offered when they decided to call off the October 9 game.

Pachanga is based in Bacolod, so it would be easy for the team to come here and play.

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MILESTONES: There are long list of belated birthday greetings. Let me start with those who turned a year older last Monday like my cousin-in-law Rey Unto, my mistah Donald Cabalo, Emelyn Simpao-Bañares, Jacqueline Oronce-King, Chinky Flores-Scott, and my mentor Flordeliz Lualhati-Abanto.

The same goes to the celebrants yesterday like my classmates Luisito Ramos and Raul Dominguiano, Mary Ann Galaura-Rafaeles, Natasha Cang, and Chari Benitez-Bieren.

Happy birthday greetings to today’s celebrants like my cousin Hazel Alfonso and The Freeman’s Flora Mata.

More power to all of you!