WATCH: Loyola beats Global to win Smart PFF National Club Championship final
My postgame thoughts on Loyola's 2-0 win over Global on Saturday that crowns them as champions of the Philippines.
You can't stockpile too many strikers. Phil Younghusband was stretchered off the field just minutes into the game with a bad hammy that bothered him from the semifinal. At the half his opposite number, Global's Izo Elhabbib, was sacrificed for Richard Talaroc. The usually lethal Sudanese striker was hampered by a bad back.
We really shouldn't wonder why Manchester City, with Edin Dzeko, Kun Aguero, and Stevan Jovetic on the payroll still picked up Wilfried Bony from Swansea in the transfer window. Strikers are the most irreplaceable players on the pitch, it seems, and one team on Saturday suffered from a lack of healthy ones.
Global parted ways with the excellent Milad Behgandom over the off-season. They missed the Iranian goalscorer badly on Saturday night. I found it odd that Azkal Curt Dizon only came on very late in the game with Global down 2-0, but I was told that he, like Elhabbib, may have been battling fitness issues too.
Perhaps Global coach Leigh Manson will be hunting for more offensive firepower before the March or April transfer window.
Matt Hartmann deserves another shot with the Azkals. Only one Hartmann was going to be happy over the weekend, and it was Loyola's Matt, not Global's Mark.
Matt scored the second with this right foot, an occurrence only slightly rarer than a visit from Halley's Comet. Matt is notorious for having a left foot that is one of the best in the country and a right that is adequate for walking most days of the week.
But on Saturday he one-hopped the ball into the corner of the with his usual plant foot to give Loyola an important 2-0 cushion. It wasn't pretty, but it counted.
Hartmann also helped set up the first goal with a neat turn and long pass into a dangerous area.
Matthew won best midfielder and tournament Most Valuable Player. It is only just that he deserves another shot with the national team.
If you'll remember, Matt bailed on the U23 Azkals during the 2011 SEA Games after a disagreement with then-coach Michael Weiss. He was banned from competitive football for a year and has never been recalled to the senior side since.
Matt has obviously grown on and off the pitch. Whatever mistakes he made in the past have been dealt with fairly. The guy has paid his dues. It's the right thing to let him back into the national side, especially with his sterling play in this tournament.
Simon McMenemy's boys showed character. When Phil departed (to be replaced by Graham Caygill,) you could feel the sense of dread coming over the orange faithful. Fortunately the Sparks, who struggled with a trophy-less 2014 after winning the 2013 UFL Cup, steeled themselves and showed some cojones, bossing the midfield in spots and after going 2-0 up, clogged the defensive third and salted away the win.
To get this trophy with their top marksman out with a hamstring injury is a huge credit to the team and to McMenemy, who wins his first professional trophy as a coach.
This kind of tournament scheduling simply has to stop. Joaco Cañas, who took best defender honors for Loyola in this tournament, told me afterwards that he had never played a sched like this (five games in ten days, five in nine for Global), since his time as a youth player, and then the games were only a half-hour long.
The wear-and-tear on the players was painfully obvious with the injuries on both sides.
There should have been two days of rest between the matches. Maybe the organizers also could have worked with the UFL to schedule the semis and final during the UFL league, in the way it's done in Europe, where as many as three or four competitions run concurrently.
For sure there were difficulties in the schedule. But everyone has to do their bit to make things easier on the players. We owe them that much. These guys are not robots.
My thoughts on ERCO not being allowed to loan GAU players. I must say that first and foremost, GAU loaning players to ERCO for this competition would not countenanced in most European leagues. It is like Manchester United getting eliminated early in the FA Cup then letting Angel Di Maria, David De Gea, Wayne Rooney, and Juan Mata to, go on loan to say, third-tier Milton Keynes Dons for the same competition. It would simply be unthinkable.
In Europe there is the concept of being “Cup-tied,” where if you play for one side in a cup competition, then you can no longer play for another that season even if you have transferred or loaned. GAU's players played in the UFL, which to my knowledge sort of served as a qualifier for this, so that should mean they should not have played for ERCO, following European convention.
Having said that, this is not Europe, and in the Philippines we like to follow the beat of a different drummer.
If this is to be allowed in the future, clear guidelines should be set and the rules strictly followed. May this be a learning experience for all.
In my opinion it shouldn't be allowed, but instead maybe the smaller provincial sides like M'lang and ERCO can have a Smart PFF National Club Plate competition with the best four developing squads in the land playing for a title. It can be like the Europa Cup to the Champions League final of Saturday. Just a thought, although admittedly an expensive one.
Lastly, kudos to the refs. Clifford Daypuyat, Linjun Talaver, Steve Supresencia, and Waling Bermejo were the main referees for this final stage. Supresencia, who has all sorts of international experience, got the final match on Saturday.
Both McMenemy and Global coach Leigh Manson told me that they were happy with their work. To my recollection I saw none of these four get any games in the last UFL division one season. Let's hope that changes come next week when the UFL kicks off.
Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.
