NCR football team awes fans with attacking style

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - Call the National Capital Region’s secondary football team as the younger version of the Loyola Meralco Sparks.

The Big City booters, represented by standouts from reigning back-to-back UAAP high school champion Far Eastern U, have been entertaining spectators here with their attacking football and made it to the finals by scoring a whopping 35 goals in four games.

And that is because NCR has a training director in Loyola’s Korean mentor Kim Chul Su and a coach in Vincent Santos, who is a member of Kim’s coaching staff at the Sparks.

“We have a strong football program at FEU and we’ve been teaching our boys to play this kind of game, which is attacking football,” said Santos, whose squad thumped Bicol, 7-0, in the semifinals over at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center amid the scorching high noon heat.

NCR is expected to go for gold against Central Visayas, the defending champion but the underdog here, early today.

Kim and Santos will then head back home to catch the game of the Sparks where the massively popular and immensely talented Phil and James Younghusband await in a game against another United Football League First Division contender Kaya FC.