La Salle XI faces tall odds vs Altas

MANILA, Philippines - La Salle-Flying V takes on University of Perpetual Help System Dalta today, needing to score eight goals to crash into the semifinal round of the 2012 IPPCA Football Pre-Season Cup at the Philsports in Pasig City.

The Green Archers, who play the Altas at 8 a.m., are currently behind the Ateneo Blue Eagles-Filoil in Group B with a 1-0-1 (win-loss-draw) but trail the Katipunan-based booters by seven goals, 2-9.

Thus La Salle needs to beat Ateneo (2-0-1) by at least eight goals to join early semifinalists Far Eastern University, University of Santo Tomas-MetroOil and Emilio Aguinaldo College, the top qualifiers in Groups A, C and D, respectively.

If La Salle beats Perpetual (0-2-0) by seven or less goals, or if the Altas score an upset, the Blue Eagles automatically makes it to the next round of the tournament sponsored by Meralco, Nuvali, Nature’s Spring, Molten, N20 Gastropub, Boysen Paints, BDO, Topcoms/StarSports Korea, Bacchus, CDO San Marino Corned Tuna and Pingping Lechon.

Ateneo scored 10 goals, scoring eight against Perpetual and two against College of St. Benilde, while yielding a lone goal to the Altas.

In the non-bearing matches in the seniors division, Mapua (0-2-0) collides with National University (0-0-2) in Group D at 10 a.m., while defending UAAP champion University of the Philippines-Eastern Petroleum (1-1-0) winds up its campaign against Lyceum of the Philippines University (0-1-1) in Group A at 1 p.m.

In the lone juniors game in the tournament backed by IPPCA members Chemrez Technologies Inc., Eastern Petroleum Corp., Filpride/USA88, Seaoil Philippines Inc., Flying V, Oilink, Unioil, International Engineer Phils., Inc., Filoil Energy Company, City Oil, Metro Oil Subic, LPGMA, Omni Petroleum Corp, Trans Overseas Industrial Corp. and CIIS, the Arellano Baby Chiefs and the Junior Pirates, who tote similar 0-2-0 cards, meet at 3 p.m.