FC MERALCO Manila was held to a 2-2 draw by Global Cebu FC in its Saturday Philippines Football League fixture but it was enough to thrust it back in the driver’s seat in the standings of the newly created national football league.
Siblings James and Phil Younghusband provided the goals for host team Meralco but a brace from newly signed player Darryl Roberts for visiting Global negated them, forcing the match, played at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium, to end in a draw, and the teams getting a point each.
The Meralco Sparks got on the board first in the 29th minute with the older Younghusband, James, picking up a goal from close range off a rebound of teammate Joaco Cañas’s shot.
Global, however, would equalize five minutes later when Mr. Roberts converted a nifty pass from Hikaru Minegishi to level the score at 1-all.
The two teams then fought to a 1-1 stalemate up to the halftime break.
Meralco once again held sway when Phil Younghusband punched through from the top left corner in the 54th minute to push his team to a 2-1 lead.
But like in the opening half, it did not take long for Global to pull abreast as Mr. Roberts fired the equalizer in the 60th minute.
Meralco continued to put pressure on Global but the latter’s goalkeeper Patrick Deyto proved himself ready as he frustrated the host team’s attempts to get the lead back the rest of the way.
The final buzzer saw the two teams knotted at 2-2.
While they were still happy to come up with a draw, Meralco coach Aris Caslib nonetheless rued their inability to halt Global’s attempts to counter, which turned out to be the difference in the match.
“When we lose possession we don’t regroup immediately. That is our problem. We need to manage transition better in our succeeding games,” said Mr. Caslib postmatch.
The win padded Meralco’s record to a currently league-leading seven wins, three draws and one loss and 24 points, a hair up over Kaya FC-Makati (7-2-3), which had a game later yesterday.
Global (6-4-2), meanwhile, is now tied for third place with Ceres-Negros FC (7-1-2) with 22 points.
Ceres notched its seventh win in the PFL also last Saturday after beating Davao Aguilas FC (0-5-6), 2-0, with goals from OJ Porteria (27’) and Stephan Schrock (57’).
