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Yu, Yanagawa haunt former club as Voltes blanks previously unbeaten Global to leave title race wide open


Tadashi Odawara capped off a man-of-the-match performance with the dagger strike in added time, as JP Voltes pulled the biggest upset of the year. (file photo)
By Kevin Estrada

MANILA--In a shocking and indescribable turn of events, JP Voltes turned the race for the United Football League title into a chaos, after pulling the rug from erstwhile-unbeaten league leaders in the lone midweek match being played late Wednesday afternoon at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

Returning from the national duty in Vietnam for the U19 team, Voltes gaffer Dan Padernal masterminded the biggest shock of the season, snapping his opponent's 15-match unbeaten league run (21 in overall UFL competitions this season) with a stunning 2-0 win that moved them up to second with 35 points with just two matches left in their schedule.

Masaki Yanagawa headed a Yu Hoshide assist in for Voltes' first goal in the 37th minute, while Tadashi Odawara drilled the insurance goal two minutes into the second half stoppage time.

Global might had seen their league-record 15-match unbeaten run snapped brutally, but they are still on top of the table with 41 points. However, their first loss also came at a huge cost, as Patrick Deyto limped off just five minutes into the restart and eighteen minutes later, Misagh Bahadoran got tossed for his high booted tackle on Nelson Gasic and will miss Sunday's tussle with Stallion, who earlier in the afternoon won by default as Forza did not show up for their encounter.

The result made the title race pretty much open, as Loyola and Ceres who will play on Saturday not far behind and can able to snatch the title away from the league leaders.

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