Pilipinas Dragons/Global FC Beats Ceres Negros FC, 2-1, To Win YFL League U-17 Title

Global won a come-from-behind thriller with the winning goal coming in the 89th minute.

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“We dominated the game and created many chances, but we weren’t finishing,” said Global coach, Nii Ayi Bimbo. Ceres took advantage of that and scored in the 80th minute to go ahead, 1:0.

With Global on the edge of losing, Paolo Sandejas was thrown into the pitch to replace team captain, Carlos Roleda, who was stretched off the field due to injury.

Coach Ayi told his players to start pressing Ceres in the defensive 3rd. “We didn’t want to go into extra time again as we did against Kaya FC,” he said.

Players did exactly what the coach asked. And, in the 85th minute, Florent Chabot scored the equalizer. The winning goal four minutes later. Paolo Sandejas’ one-touch volley found the back of the net.

Ceres coach, Mike Boyo, called the loss “painful.”

In the tournament, Quincy Kammeraad was awarded Best Goalkeeper; Florent Chabot was picked MVP; and Hossni Dosso–with 15 goals–went home as Best Striker.

Outstanding coaching earmarked the tournament’s final game. Ayi came with great experience, having coached Union School from 2007-2009, Global Academy 2010-2012, and UFL 1st division teams Parsagad FC in 2014 and Team Socceroo in 2015. He possesses an AFC C and B Licence and certificates in ‘Management In Injury Prevention’ and FIFA Grassroots.

Boyo is also experienced. He managed Mama Africa FC in the UFL 1st division and Kaya FC B in the WFL. His Kaya U17 team won the same level competition twice before it was changed from UFL to YFL.

Going into the final against Ceres, Ayi knew it wasn’t going to be easy. In the first season, Global U17 finished the competition with a Silver Medal, losing to Kaya FC in extra time. But this time, Global took control from the first whistle.

That could be a sign of even greater things to come.