Ateneo draws with UE in UAAP Football

Ateneo draws with UE in UAAP Football

by rick olivares

pic by brosi g

January 30, 2011

Erenchun Field, Ateneo de Manila

The match with the University of the East Red Warriors ended in a scoreless draw but what the result does not show was the titanic effort showed by the Ateneo Men’s Football Team.

Football is a peculiar game. One can dominate the game such as the league-leading University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons who led La Salle 1-nil and thoroughly outplayed the Taft-based squad until a goal in the final 30 seconds changed the course of the tournament. The draw prevented a sweep and stopped UP’s four-game win streak. More importantly, the loss of three full points gave DLSU and UST a chance to catch up.

In Ateneo’s case, they outplayed UE despite the Recto-based squad being back at full strength after their striker Gringo Bravo missed their last match on account of two yellow cards.

In perhaps their best overall performance of the tournament thus far, the Blue Booters got their attack going and had numerous scoring chances while denying Bravo and strike partner Fitch Florence Arboleda clear shots at the goal.

Ateneans Gab Siojo, Anton Amistoso, and Jacobo Lorenzo had several chances to put the blue and white up by what tournament officials said could have been “five goals” but poor finishing prevent the home team to rack up its first win of the season.

“We were aggressive all game long,” noted a proud Ateneo coach Arnulfo Merida. “We had them on the defensive. Sayang lang hindi tayo naka-goal. Hopefully, we can play like this in the second round.”

At the end of the first round of the UAAP Season 73 Men’s Football Tournament, the Ateneo Blue Booters could only get two points off two draws in five matches. At present, they are tied with FEU with a 0-2-3 (win-draw-loss) record.

Ateneo plays UP in the opening match of the second round this Wednesday, February 2 at 1pm at Erenchun Field.