Joseph Garces has had a debut campaign to remember with the University of the Philippines, scoring five goals in just eight matches in the UAAP Season 87 Collegiate Men’s Football Tournament.
Amid his hot start, the rookie from Don Bosco Technology Center in Cebu shared that he is doing his best to emulate another great Fighting Maroons forward from the Queen City of the South – Kintaro Miyagi.
Miyagi won two UAAP titles with UP and scored a hat trick in the Season 78 final against Ateneo de Manila University.
“Yun nga, parang legend siya sa UP,” Garces said. “I wanna follow sa footsteps niya and make a name for myself. Isa siya sa (mga player na) I look up to.
“Kung pano nila sinasabi kung pano siya as a striker, I try my best to do the same. Sinasabi ni kuya Macky (Tobias) and yung mga coaches nga, si King laging ganun. Personally, I’ve seen him play sa Cebu.”
For many young Filipino athletes, playing in the UAAP is a dream.
For Garces, it was his ambition to play for UP after graduating from Don Bosco.
Thankfully, things aligned when Fighting Maroons head coach Popoy Clarino made the trip to Garces’ hometown, and things progressed from there.
“Ano lang, nag-sign up lang po ako ng application for tryout,” Garces explained. “And then yung week before tryout, parang may competition kami sa Cebu na parang national competition ng Cebu.
“Pumunta si Coach Poy dun and then parang nalaman niya nga na nag-apply ako sa UP, then sinabihan niya ako na kukunin nga ako pero nag-tryout parin ako.”
(C) UAAP Season 87 Media Team
As a striker, Garces aims to help UP win matches by scoring goals. However, in last Sunday’s match against Ateneo, he failed to score.
Instead, it took Liam Lampayan’s 90+5 minute header to secure the win for the Fighting Maroons.
Strikers often feel frustrated when they don’t score, but Garces understands it’s part of the process.
In this instance, he credited his teammates for stepping up. He also mentioned that the team would use their victory over the league-leading Blue Eagles as a confidence booster for future games.
“I scored one last game (versus University of the East), but ngayon parang ewan. Feel ko na-mark ako pero they were a tough team with tough defenders. Kahit papano, tinatry ko nalang talaga kahit di ako maka-score na maka-contribute parin with my passes and movements,” he said.
“I thank my teammates na parang sinalo talaga ako. Panget yung laro ko pero thankful ako sa kanila (na) they continued on without me. Really, with this win, it’s just been a motivation against the number one,” he continued.
“We’ll use that game as a standard na parang we shouldn’t stoop down to that level na we won against the number one. We’ll use that as a boost coming into our next games.”
