MANILA, Philippines - Kaya FC held a press conference for the second Kaya Reunion Match at Skinny Mike’s Sports Bar at the Bonifacio Global City Wednesday afternoon.
This year’s match that will be held at 6pm Saturday, August 31, at the Emperador Stadium at McKinley Hill, will have a new twist to the lineups.
In the first reunion match, the current Kaya squad went up against its alumni team and the results weren’t pretty as the 2012-13 team romped away to an 8-0 win. Over 50 Kaya alumni showed up for that match.
“To make it more balanced and exciting,†said team manager Justin Tolentino, “We held a draft where the two teams – one coached by (founders) Rudy Del Rosario, Mikee Carrion, and Chris Hagedorn and the other by current coach David Perkovic – will have a mix of players from the new squad, alumni, and the youth teams (U-19). That way, it brings the whole Kaya family together.â€
Both teams will be playing three periods of 30 minutes each. The winner of each period will be awarded points that will count towards the total. A trophy will be awarded to the winning team.
Team 1: Rudy Del Rosario/Mikee Carrion/Chris Hagedorn
Anton Del Rosario
Alvin Ocampo
Mark Winhoffer
OJ Porteria
Nico Bolzico
Arama Reagan
Eddie Mallari
Kross Ubiam
Josh Miller
Scott Baginski
Mich Severino
Christian Zubiri
Kenshiro Daniels
Francisco Plaza
Ames Legarda
Saba Garmaroudi
Paolo Misa
Dan O’Reilly
Mati Alvarez
Toto
Antonio Raffles
Toshi Hosoe
Besa
Mikel Maniquis
Carlo Liay
Ramon Bonoan
Team 2: David Perkovic/Justin Tolentino/Raffy Herrera
Chris Greatwich
Marco Casambre
Masa Omura
Paul Tolentino
Iñigo Herrera
Emmanuel Mbata
Evan Santos
Rafael Plaza
Danilo de Jong
Gil Talavera
Johnny McArtor
Fabian Lewis
Kale Alvarez
Enzo Jalandoni
Woody Ugarte
Panky Abijay
Nicolas Cruz
Nick O'Donnell
Mari Javier
Joey Arenas
Janrick Soriano
Joel Dabao
Luis Sumera
Andrew Liauw
Enrique Posas
Kaya also made use of the press con to introduce their new signings for the upcoming season. Making their Kaya debut is the younger brother of Azkals and Global midfielder Jason De Jong, Danilo De Jong who plays attacking midfielder; Fil-Dutch left back Andrew Liauw; Mati Alvarez, a defensive midfielder from Argentina; Australian holding midfielder Scott Baginski; former Stallion forward Jovin Bedic; and former Pasargad forward Emmanuel Mbata.
Perkovic, who came in the first month of the league season, expressed excitement about being a part of this "Reunion Match". "It is nice to see how huge the Kaya family is," he said. "To be able to add to its legacy is a big honor for me."
The Australian coach also added that Kaya isn’t done with the tinkering of its squad but he expressed excitement over the new season.