When goalkeeper Alfonso Gonzalez came off the bench for University of the Philippines in the 64th minute against Adamson University in the UAAP Season 86 Men’s Football Tournament last Sunday, it came after a sequence of unfortunate events.
Adamson captain Arjay Buenaobra pulled one back for his team in the 55th minute, but the Fighting Maroons signaled the medics to rush to the pitch.
The Fighting Maroons’ starting goalie Ryan Tiambeng had suffered an injury after a bad landing while trying to prevent the goal.
Up came Gonzalez from the bench, and the challenge was clear: help the Fighting Maroons win a match that they were throwing away against the Soaring Falcons despite having a three-goal lead by the end of the first half.
“As soon as I found out that our first keeper Ryan got injured, I felt like I needed to bring the team back together, to focus, and to stay organized because I heard it was a really bad injury,” said the Brent International School, Manila alumnus.
“I told everyone to dedicate this game and finish it off with a win for Ryan.”
Gonzalez’s introduction to the match was not smooth sailing as he conceded a goal four minutes later from Adamson striker Lorent John Jayaon.
Now, with the game delicately poised at 3-2, one of the worst things that could happen, happened. UP defender Charles Lobitaña brought down Dexter Jhon Casing in the box.
It became a one-on-one duel between Gonzalez and Soaring Falcons substitute Carl Mahinay. And the Adamson player had a chance to salvage a draw for his team with a penalty.
With all eyes on them both, the 19-year-old stopper performed a fine save on his right side to deny Mahinay and save all three points for the Fighting Maroons.
“Well at first, I just wanna say that was a completely clean challenge,” said Gonzalez. “So, in my head, I believed that Adamson did not deserve that penalty. I thought it was a clean challenge so in my head, I thought I just needed to make sure that we kept the lead and secured the three points just to prove that this was our win.
“My first instinct was really to go that side. Luckily enough, I was correct. My instincts while watching his mannerisms were correct.”
While Gonzalez was the hero of the game for UP – which ended the first round second in the standings with 12 points – his thoughts immediately turned to his teammate Tiambeng.
There is still no official word about Tiambeng’s status. For now, Gonzalez and the rest of the Fighting Maroons can only control what they can control while waiting for their teammate to recover.
“Well, in the chance that Ryan may not come back, we should use that as a motivation to play for him. If he does not come back, that means he won’t be able to play with us anymore, which is really painful for any team: having a teammate that you’ve trained with the whole year and then all of a sudden, after one moment, he’s gone,” said Gonzalez.
“We just use that to keep pushing the team to make sure we play for him.”
