Chantal Van Ommeren fired a stoppage-time winner to lift University of the Philippines to a thrilling 1-0 victory over rival Ateneo De Manila University in the UAAP Season 87 Women’s Football tournament opener on Saturday at the UP Diliman Football Stadium.
The rookie from Cagayan De Oro City broke through on the counter-attack three minutes into second-half stoppage time to score the decisive goal – a deserved one, as the Fighting Maroons dominated the attacking play throughout the match.
“I thought we had full control of the first half. In terms of offense, the patience, the shape – nakuha namin ‘yung objectives namin. What was really lacking was the penetration,” said UP head coach Anto Gonzales.
He went on, “Even though we had a lot of the ball, we didn’t create enough scoring chances, and that’s what we needed to work on.”
Ateneo, however, had the best chance to take the lead when Jada Bicierro fired a shot in the 38th minute, but Roxanne Eduave was there to collect the ball.
Another opportunity went begging for the Blue Eagles in the second half, when Chrisia Espiritu’s attempt struck the crossbar in the 74th minute.
The Fighting Maroons finally broke through as the Filipino-Dutch forward weaved her magic to net the eventual winner.
Gonzales hopes his team will recover from the narrow win as they prepare to face De La Salle University next Saturday at 6:30 PM.
“We definitely have to work on how to penetrate the opposing backline. That will be a big challenge for us. La Salle has many technically skilled players, so we have to be defensively disciplined and create scoring chances,” the long-time Maroons mentor added.
The Blue Eagles, meanwhile, will have their hands full as they face defending champions Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws earlier that same day at the same Diliman venue.
