The University of the Philippines (UP) Women’s Football Team leveled the play after a draw with the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Golden Booters, 1-1, on Oct. 30 at the UP Diliman Football Stadium.
Following this draw, State U stays in third place, garnering four points and a minus-3 goal differential.
Missed opportunities
The Fighting Maroons nearly scored in the 29th minute courtesy of defender Alyssa Nicole Narido’s free kick, only to find it straight into the hands of UST goalkeeper Lizlie Garcia.
But shortly after, seasoned forward Anya Fuentes found the back of the net in the 35th minute after capitalizing on a precise through ball at the net’s left side, scoring her first goal of the season en route to a 1-0 lead for UP.
Before halftime, a yellow card was given to midfielder and team captain Denielle Joy Napiza after an intense struggle with UST’s Gleydile Anonuevo.
This gave the Golden Booters a set-piece opportunity, but their attempt went straight while UP goalkeeper Eunice Roxanne Eduave soared and made an easy catch for the ball.
The España-based squad, meanwhile, was quick to bite back in the second half as midfielder Judy Mae Prado scored UST’s first-ever goal of the season in the 57th minute.
Sixty-one minutes into the game, forward Ma. Bianca Martina Torres came down with an injury, forcing head coach Andres Gonzales to field crucial substitutes Cris Mae Montero, Isalyn Tundag, Patricia Ann Espinosa, and Chantal Van Ommeren in hopes of breaking the deadlock.
Despite the lineup changes, the maroon shirts struggled to convert their goals due to UST’s strong defense.
Staring at a 1-all deadlock in the final minutes of the match, rookie forward Van Ommeren came close to sealing a dramatic win only to be stopped by Garcia once more and end the showdown with a draw.
More improvement
Closing the first round with a tight match, Coach Gonzales shared his thoughts on the team’s performance so far in the season.
“We’ve been quite inconsistent. We’ve had halves wherein we really played well, halves wherein we stepped back, lacked confidence, didn’t have the assertiveness,” Gonzales said in a post-match interview with Tinig ng Plaridel.
In their opening game against Ateneo, Van Ommeren managed to score a game-winning shot in the last seconds of the match, 1-0.
However, lightning struck twice for forward Hannah Marie Muros as she tallied two goals in total for the Fighting Maroons, 1-3 in their match-up against De La Salle University (DLSU) and another 1-3 with the Far Eastern University.
Gonzales looked back at the DLSU game, which he called “the worst game of the season” for the Diliman-based squad.
While in their match-up against FEU, he recalls that the team started very well since 20 minutes into the game was UP’s benchmark, which they hoped to bring into their round-ender with UST.
Following their round one ender victory, the UP WFT tactician hopes for a more improved squad as the second round of the tournament nears.
“It’s all about game-reading, being consistent with our pressing, with our aggressiveness, being confident with the ball—so those will be the main things that we will be working to improve on. We just have to work smarter, work harder for the second round,” he said.
