Engineered for Silverware: How Global won the 2014 UFL League

Last Thursday Global clinched the 2014 UFL League title with an emphatic 7-2 victory over Pachanga PLDT Home Fibr. The result puts the side on 53 points on the table with three matches still to play. Global's closest rival, Kaya, is on 46 with two games to play and thus can no longer catch them under the UFL's pure triple-round robin league format with no playoffs.

At the final whistle the joyous Global players showered water on each other and took pics of themselves with “The Lady,” the UFL league trophy. Notably, one player not cheering was Daisuke Sato. The emotional Filipino-Japanese wept openly as his team mates celebrated.

Global have regained the crown they last won in 2012, only this time more emphatically. Then they triumphed via goal difference against Kaya. This time Dan Palami's men bulldozed the competition to submission to seal the deal with 270 minutes of action to spare.

Palami told me before the game that his side had scored 86 goals going into the contest with Pachanga and had only conceded 18. Those totals are now 93 and 20, for a ludicrous goal difference of +73.

The season began badly for Global, with a 4-0 loss to Loyola. But somehow they turned it around and proved dominant for the rest of the way. How did this side so comprehensively outclass the field? The reasons are plenty.

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Ruthlessness. Sentimentality was not part of the playbook for Global. Palami played a cut-throat game of “what have you done for me lately” in his personnel moves.

Ben Starosta was a key cog for Global. The experienced Poland U21 International was acquired last year to help bring quality to the center of the park. But this year, during the March transfer window, he was pink-slipped. The Angeles twins, Marwin and Marvin, were also sent packing and found a soft landing in Ceres.

To begin the season, Global had two new Iranians on their payroll, Hamed Kakavand and Mojtaba Miromohammadi. But they didn't impress, and were on the next plane to Tehran after the window.

Angge Tresor Guisso, once a rock in central defense for Global, was shifted to its affiliate club, Laos, in the second tier.

The message is clear in Global: we will give you a chance to succeed, but if you cannot pull your weight, sorry, you'll have to find another club.

“Sometimes it's the most painful thing to see your players go, but sometimes you have to do these things” explains Palami. “It's hard to do but it has to be done.”

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New blood. Global began the season with Mark Hartmann, late of Loyola. The striker/attacking mid rewarded Palami's confidence by becoming the league's top scorer. But Hartmann is far from the only new piece of Global's championship puzzle.

Milad Behgandom, formerly of Pasargad, came aboard as well. He provided coach Leigh Manson with yet another weapon.

But the biggest boost came in the transfer window. Global used its connections in Mexico (presumably through goalie coach Jorge Kuriyama) to bring in centerback German Rodriguez and central midfielder Raul Martinez. Rodriguez is a towering presence in the defense who also has the quickness to shut down speedy forwards like Balot Doctora. Martinez' experience helped shore up the midfield.

Curt Dizon, another splendidly gifted attacker, joined in the window too from Union and make solid contributions. Hamed Hajimehdi and Napo Bustillo, two other additions, are fine attacking players as well.

But perhaps the finest move was the discovery of Daisuke Sato. The left-sided player's entry was perfect, since Jeffrey Christiaens got himself hurt and was out for a long time. Sato's sensational play for club and country has been one of the revelations of Filipino football this year.

In contrast, Loyola picked up William Broomfield and Graham Caygill in the window. Both good players, but neither has been able to have the impact of Global's picks. Kaya grabbed Pablo Rodriguez and he is an elite goalscorer at this level, but he is only one player arrayed against Global's several great finds. Plus, he broke his hand and is out for a few more weeks at least.

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Luck. Every team needs it to win a title, and Global had some of it or rather, their pursuers lacked it.

Loyola saw both Younghusbands banged for much of the league. Ditto for Fred Gonzalez. But Kaya was even worse off.

Apart from Rodriguez's arm, Kaya's sick bay is overflowing. Richard Greer did in his knee and had to have surgery. Keeper Manu Saubach broke his finger in a friendly kickaround. And of course, Aly Borromeo only recently returned from a long layoff due to knee injury. Promising midfielder Carlo Liay blew out his knee in the UAAP for Ateneo and couldn't play for Kaya this league. Masa Omura, their hugely experienced and influential centerback, is also out injured.

Kaya suffered yet another blow on Tuesday when Hector Zaghi broke his shin colliding with Pasargad's keeper.

Global's players score braces. Kaya's players wear braces, on their knees. How bad is it? Even one of the team managers, Justin Tolentino, is on crutches. Had Kaya suffered fewer injuries, they could have challenged Global. But not this year.

Depth. Global is absurdly, almost unnecessarily, deep. The Global bench is littered with guys who would start on other sides. Yu Hoshide, a midfield maestro with a passing vision and touch second to none in the league, usually comes off the bench, if at all. Patrick Delon Yao, a magnificently skilled utility player who shone in 2013, found minutes hard to come by this season.

Jerry Barbaso started on Tuesday but was hurt in the beginning of the league and had to give way for Charles Pettys, another pick up.

Izo Elhabbib would be a centerpiece striker anywhere else, but even he had to ride the pine for much of the season because of all the top strikers on the roster. Thankfully for him, Global have inked him to a contract extension, so he will remain part of the team's future.

Even Angel Guirado took a back seat this year, but he did score twice on Tuesday.

On Tuesday Hartmann and Dizon were both in the stands in street clothes, either injured or hurt. But it didn't matter as Global rolled to victory anyway.

I think of Global and I remember that show “Hoarders,” about folks who stockpile all sorts of junk in their homes for no apparent reason. Global are a bit like that, only they do it with players.

Fitness. “I think we were one of the teams where injuries were kept at a minimum” says Palami. It's easy to see why.

Many teams in the UFL have one or two fitness and conditioning coaches who may or may not be physiotherapists too. Global has enjoyed the services of Yo Malinay and Wally Javier for a long time (the two also work for the Azkals.) This year Madel Galvez was added to the support staff. Galvez, a former fencer, is a graduate of Exercise Science from the University of the Philippines and is the team's strength and conditioning coach. No doubt her inputs have been useful.

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Coaching. “The investment in the coaches was one of the best decisions I have ever made” says Palami.

Last year Brian Reid was Global's coach. He came with a solid resume from helming teams in Scotland's second tier. But Reid came up empty in leading the side in the UFL League, UFL Cup, Singapore Cup, and AFC President's Cup. He was shipped off and replaced by another Scot, the genial Leigh Manson.

Manson could have been looked upon as a risk for Global. He had no head coaching experience at a high level and had mostly been doing work for Nike Total Football in Japan as a consultant to teams. But in the end, he turned out to be the perfect man for the job.

“He had a big impact on the team” says Bads Elhabbib, Izo's brother, a former Global player, now with Laos, who is still close to the team.

“Manson introduced short, simple passes and possession play, not just long balls” adds Bads. The elder Elhabbib also notes that Manson had his team doing many different training drills every day. There was no chance of being bored or jaded by repetitive exercises.

Elhabbib also explains that under Manson players did more fitness exercises with the ball, unlike other coaches who prefer warming up and working out without it.

Global also has two other foreign coaches, Kuriyama and his countryman Diego Sandoval. No other team in the league has this many coaches from abroad.

But Manson is old school in one respect. He always emphasizes hard work, and continually mentions it in press conferences.

Prayers in French. Before every match, Ivorian goalie Roland Sadia leads the team in prayer. Sadia, whose English is rudimentary, speaks in impassioned, staccato bursts of French, punctuated by gestures with his gloved hand.

At the close of last Tueaday's pre-game prayer, Sadia ended with “everybody understand?” To which the Global boys shouted in unison, “yeah!”

In reality, not everyone in Global knows French. But it seems the football Gods understand it just fine. And they answered Roland's prayers by delivering the 2014 UFL league title to him and his club.

Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.