Losing a cup final is said to be the worst feeling in football. It doesn’t matter if it is the cup final of the pre-season tournament or a prestigious competition, losing it will always leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Last Sunday’s Philippine Football Federation Women’s Cup final between DLSU and defending champions FEU proved no different.
The match itself was a continuation of the previous week’s game which was halted due to the inclement weather. Just a minute into the restart, FEU’s Alesa Dolino scored. Barbie Sobredo then scored an insurance goal for the FEU with Angge Metillo scoring a consolation for DLSU. The match ended 2-1 and FEU retained their title.
“All errors. It was La Salle’s errors. We deserved to lose”, rued DLSU head coach Hans-Peter Smit.
Aside from his team’s errors, another factor that Smit lamented was the injury problems his team faced, noting two of this recruits were recovering from the dreaded ACL injury. “Like I said, I don’t have my two recruits here and those two recruits are first eleven players. I had to do with what I have. Two of my recruits came back lang from ACL. This is the first tournament. They didn’t really have time to recover talaga.” Smit also mentioned that one of his active players, Nicole Andaya, also suffered an injury. “Andaya’s also playing the last two games with a bad injury also. She was limping the whole time.”
However the amount of injuries that DLSU had also added to the sense of achievement in making it to the PFF Women’s Cup finals. “We can only get better”, concluded Smit. “If I have my recruits, you’ll see a different La Salle. I can’t say better, but definitely different.”
For Smit, considering it’s only the first tournament of the season, all he sees is progress adding that none of the teams in the UAAP are peaking yet. “Half-hearted. We’re not yet full. I don’t think any of the teams were really at ease. This is the first tournament of the year, of the season, I see progress.” While Smit said it’s too early to say which team is looking good coming to the UAAP, he mentioned that UST caught his eye. “UST, if they continue their young team… They’re practically a new team and they’ve played so much different from last year, so UST is a team to watch.”
After this tournament, the next competition for the DLSU Women’s Football Team is going to be the University Games which will be held in Bacolod and shall start on October 22, 2015. There is also said to be another PFF tournament on the horizon for DLSU after the UNIGAMES.
