MANILA – Kaya Futbol Club-Iloilo cruised to a solo lead in the 2022-2023 Philippines Football League via a 4-1 victory over Maharlika Manila Football Club over the weekend at the PFF National Training Center in Carmona, Cavite. Eric Ben Giganto struck twice while Daizo Horikoshi and Marco Casambre added a conversion each. The Iloilo City-based booters improved to 24 points behind eight wins and two draws. Maharlika has a point after 11 games.
After three weeks since their last game, United City got their 2022-2023 Philippines Football League campaign back on track with a 4-2 victory over Stallion Laguna, Saturday evening, at the Binan Football Stadium. Kenshiro Daniels broke the deadlock in the 11th minute when he scored via a header off a corner. Up 1-0 by halftime, the defending champions went on a rampage after the break.
The local domestic scene returns as the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) announces the official kickoff date of the Philippines Football League brought to you by Qatar Airways Season 2022-2023 on 14 August 2022 at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium in Manila. The season will run from August 2022 to May 2023 as the PFL aligns its league fixtures with the AFC competitions calendar beginning next year. The first two rounds will be played from August to November 2022 followed by the third and fourth rounds scheduled for January to May 2023.
Kaya-Iloilo moved a win from retaining the Copa Paulino Alcantara title after edging out Stallion-Laguna, 1-0, in their rain-drenched semifinal held Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at the PFF National Training Centre in Carmona, Cavite. Daizo Horikoshi, the tournament’s top goalscorer, produced the winner in the 86th minute as Kaya progressed to its fourth consecutive Final after surviving a gallant stand of the tough Stallion side.
Horikoshi’s sixth goal allowed Kaya to extend its unbeaten run in domestic competitions to 16 straight matches dating back to the shortened 2020 Philippines Football League season. The holders will look to lift the Copa trophy for the second straight year when they face United City FC on Sunday. United City also needed a 1-0 win to beat Dynamic Herb Cebu in the other semis match. Kaya has appeared in all championship matches of the annual cup competition named after the great FC Barcelona striker, winning twice during the inaugural run in 2018 over the Davao Aguilas and in 2021 against the Azkals Development Team. Continue reading MATCH REPORT: KAYA FC – ILOILO 1-0 STALLION LAGUNA FC
The qualification campaign for the 2023 Asian Cup tournament resumes this week with third round matches and Philippines soccer would be a participant. The third round of the 2023 Asian Cup is a group format and the Philippines are in Group B alongside Yemen, hosts Mongolia and Palestine.
The Syrians were one of the six nations who failed to qualify for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament despite reaching the third round stage of the Asian qualifiers. Apart from Syria, the other teams are China People’s Republic (China PR), Oman, Iraq, Lebanon and Vietnam. It must be pointed out that either one from Australia and the United Arab Emirates or both could still miss out on Qatar 2022 from the third round of the Asian qualifiers.
The Philippines are on a two-match losing run after suffering back-to-back defeats during the international break last month. Philippines Soccer suffered a major setback with the defeats to Malaysia and Singapore last month.
Philippines still have a lot of work to do to secure one of the 24 spots at the 2023 Asian Cup tournament scheduled to take place in ten stadiums across ten Chinese cities. As things stand, Philippines soccer won’t be represented in China unless qualification is sealed.
Although the Philippines Women Football Team were unfortunately sent packing from the Women’s Asian Cup tournament, they have shown some blistering signs that there are great and better things to come in the future from their team. Their fairytale came to an abrupt end in the tournament following their 2-0 loss at the hands of the South Korean team in the semi-finals of the competition but there were some positives to take out of the match.
