Philam-7s Football League kicks off 3rd Season

Super Eagles began their title defense on a high note.

By Xy-Zha Cabanlong

TAGUIG—Anton del Rosario's Philam-7s Football League is back in action as it kicked its third season off at the McKinley Hill Stadium.

Twelve teams, including two familiar names when it comes to football in the country have played tonight with two games being played simultaneously together in a half-court pitch setting.

Defending champions Super Eagles were featured in the first game wherein they beat newcomer Bohemian Sporting Club, 5-2.

At the other side of the pitch, Tondo FC walked away as the better team over another newcomer, Ceres Negros FC, 2-1.

The second batch of  games proved to be more of a thriller as Nico Bolzico's Matu Deportivo played neck and neck against Stallion Laguna FC.

Both teams were held on a draw at halftime but Matu Deportivo emerged as the better team at the final whistle, 5-2.

“Stallion used their first team and they were very good, they passed the ball a lot, they made us run a lot. I think that was a very even game, it was very fun. We saw that at the end of the first half, Stallion was losing intensity and we thought that we need to be more compact, we need to create less space in the middle because our opponent passes the ball a lot and is very good at moving without the ball. We needed to play smarter, run a bit less but be more organized,” Bolzico said in an interview post match.

The biggest romp of the night came when Super Bad experienced a 9-1 whip courtesy of last season's runner-up Ghana FC.

Ghana took their loss to penalties kicks at last season's final a little too hard that they came in prepared for the third season. Their opening game was indeed a statement.

Over at the last set of games that were played for the opener, H&J All Stars were able to escape a draw against Futbol Fanatics.

A goal that was scored by H&J All Stars a few minutes before the final whistle was blown gave them the edge over their opponents.

Meanwhile, Delimondo-Laro FC was flawless in their game against Real Amigos; 3-0 with the game serving as the debut of Azkal Misagh Bahadoran into the league.

Bahadoran last played at Perak FC of the Malaysian Super League and is now suiting up for Delimondo-Laro FC along with his former national teammates, Anton del Rosario and Aly Borromeo.

However, Bahadoran was not able to continue further in the game after he was subbed off just before halftime after sustaining an injury off a play.

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