The search for future stars for the men’s national squad is on.
Skills and talents of young guns and up-and-coming stars from different regions in the vast football landscape of the Philippines are now being showcased in the newly-created Philippine Football Federation (PFF) Suzuki U-23 National Cup.
Represented by 30 teams from all over the country out of 33 member Football Associations (FAs) of the PFF, the goal of the current federation president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta for this year’s incarnation of the age group tournament would be to find quality grassroots players that may find their way to get called up to the national team for this year’s Southeast Asian Games.
The tournament, sponsored by Suzuki Motors Philippines, has six sub-regionals in both Luzon and Mindanao where 23 teams will vie for respective seats into the regionals. Six teams have automatically qualified into the regionals, with five coming from Visayas and the National Capital Region (NCR) team being seeded into the Luzon regionals outright.
Only eight teams will remain in the running for the title in a knockout home-and-away series that will determine the champion by May of this year.
Although the tournament was formally opened today, the tournament already commenced in Mindanao with the West Mindanao and North Mindanao regions already deciding their respective representatives beforehand.
The opening ceremonies were graced by none other than the Azkals, fresh off their successful bid to qualify to the 2012 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup. Fanatics and supporters alike trooped to University of the Philippines-Los Baños to give them a warm welcome and catch a glimpse of their football heroes. In return, Emelio “Chieffy” Caligdong and Angel Guirado returned the favor by showing off some of their football handling skills.
In the showcase match of the day, hosts Laguna defeated Baguio City-Benguet by a scoreline of 4-2. Kevin De Castro slotted in a rare hat trick during the 39th, 47th, and the 89th minute. Meanwhile, teammate Jim Flores scored the go-ahead goal in the 85th minute that downed the morale of the Pines City XI.
In consolation, 18 year old Alvin Aoas broke their scoring drought in the 52nd minute via a penalty kick then tied the ballgame at 2-all on a second goal in the 73rd minute.
