One More Game
by rick olivares
On Sunday, February 21, several players of the De La Salle University Women’s Football Team went to watch one more game with great bearing on the finals cast for the Season 72 championship.
A win by either FEU or UST would propel them to the championship round with a twice-to-beat advantage as a reward for topping the eliminations. A draw by either side would send the defending champion Tigresses into the Finals over the Lady Tams because of a superior quotient.
The scoreless draw meant that La Salle had the top seed billing. But that doesn’t mean anything to either parties. Last season, with the same advantage, the Lady Archers fell. And in embarrassing fashion as their high-powered offense was rendered ineffective by UST. It was a magnificent coda to UST’s campaign. They beat La Salle in the Metro Manila Girls Football Association, Uni-Games, and in the UAAP.
The off-season was tumultuous. “An understatement,” corrected third year midfielder Samantha Nierras. “We feel like we’re cursed.”
And UST kept the hex on them once more by beating them again in the MMGFA and the Uni-Games for the second straight year.
To make things worse for La Salle, they lost leading scorer Jessica Ryon and Charm Lazaro who transferred to the College of Saint Benilde, Issa Camara and Clarissa Lazaro to graduation even if they one playing year left, Fiona MacKenzie to a heart problem, Michelle Severino who is abroad on a student exchange program, and Maan del Carmen who did not have enough units. That left the school’s long time and multi-titled coach Hans Smit scrambling to put a team on the field and to get them focused on the season to come.
“We were not on the same page,” admitted Nierras. “We had a team building session that was the best we’ve had in years.”
But Smit wasn’t leaving things to chance. “I said only one thing to them at the start of the year, ‘Do you want to become the first La Salle team not to make the finals?’”
“Ah, that’s coach,” pointed out Nierras with a wry smile. La Salle has made every single UAAP football finals for 15 straight years. “He loves to play mind games with us. Use that reverse psychology on us, you know?”
“She is a bright kid, I told you so,” laughed Smit in return. But the message sank in.
Despite the lack of scoring options and scoring only five goals and giving up two, DLSU finished at the top of the heap after eight games for 15 points. “This year exceeded my expectations,” said Smit who would love nothing than to win another title.
Except that beating UST isn’t an easy task. With one game left in the Lady Archers’ elimination round, they lost keeper Haya Ibarra, a candidate for Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament, to an ACL injury in a freak accident during practice.
Smit was at the back of the goal in the La Salle grounds when it happened. “Here we go again,” he thought to himself as he kept his sunglasses on.
The team had only one keeper in its line-up with no back up. Some may say it foolhardy but Smit says that he had no place for a back up on his team. Wingback Miel Ampil replaced Ibarra at the net and she gave a good account of herself although she surrendered a goal to UP’s Kaira Dimatulac in a 1-nil loss.
“Why are you crying?” Smit asked his players after the game. “We lost a game. So what? But we’re still in the finals!”
Game One on Thursday, February 24, will find the Lady Archers protecting Ampil and playing in zones. Their defense will dictate their offense and they have to find a solution to the Tigresses’ Marianne Narciso who scored 10 goals this year.
“One more game,” said Nierras after the UST-FEU game. “We want the season to end on Thursday.” Should UST win, the clincher will be played on Sunday.
“To win it in one game would be nice,” summed up Smit. “In two games, I’ll take it as long as it’s a win. But I hope that we don’t go to penalty kicks.”
The Lady Archers have not won (against UST) in three matches when it goes to penalties.
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