Home United stalls Ceres Negros with 1-1 standoff

MANILA, Philippines — Defending champion Ceres Negros FC rued its inability to burst the defense of Home United and hit the mark in a 1-1 stalemate in the opener of the AFC Cup Asean Zone finals but vowed to make amends and get the job done in a must-win return leg in Singapore next week.

“They (Home) played defensively so it was not easy to penetrate. There was no space to play. Maybe we should play faster but it’s not easy to do so,” said Ceres coach Risto Vidakovic.

Although the Busmen dominated possession and managed to launch 15 shots, only three of those were on target, with Australian striker Blake Powell netting Ceres’ lone goal from the spot in the eighth minute. 

Isaka Cernak leveled the game in the 23rd minute, providing the visiting Protectors with what could be an important away goal going to the next game at Jalan Besar. For Ceres to retain the zonal crown, they need to beat the S-League side or force it to a high-scoring draw on Aug. 8.

“I think we did what we can at this moment and we have another 90 minutes there so everything is open,” said Vidakovic.

The debuting Powell did his best to take scoring cudgels for a Ceres team missing top gun Bienvenido Maranon, who’s serving the first of his two-game suspension.

“It’s unlucky that we didn’t get the result in front of our fantastic home crowd but as coach said, we got a must-win coming so we’ll go to Singapore and give our 200 percent,” said Powell.