After a three-week break, the DLSU Green and Lady Booters have returned to Ateneo’s football field with contrasting victories against the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) men’s and women’s football teams this midweek. The teams are set to face the Far Eastern University Lady Tamaraws (FEU) and the University of the East Red Warriors (UE) today respectively.
Goals aplenty
The Lady Booters collected win number one at the Ocampo Field last Wednesday with a dramatic 2-1 win against reigning champion UST. Chermaine Guancia scored two goals, including a last-minute winner that denied the Thomasians a draw. Subsequently, the Green Booters opened 2013 with a 4-0 drubbing of UST. Jojo Borromeo, Gio Diamante and Gelo Diamante entered the score sheet; Gio scored twice for the Taft-based XI.
Climbing up the ladder
The DLSU Lady Booters face a daunting task in fighting FEU. The opponent topped the first round after tallying two wins and two draws, one of which came from the Lady Booters.
The Lady Booters cannot afford any mishap in defense against an attack-oriented FEU team, which already recorded six goals in four games. The team also needs to work on breaking down the FEU defense, which has yet to concede any goals this season.
With the Lady Booters being four points behind league-leading Ateneo, a win will put the seven-time UAAP winner to second or third place, depending on the result of the ADMU-UST game. At the end of the second round of eliminations, only the top two teams will have the right to fight for the UAAP football crown.
Taking the incentive
With the gap between fourth-placed DLSU and fifth-placed UST stretched to six points after DLSU’s, 4-0, win last Thursday, the Green Booters will certainly have less pressure from the bottom three and will be more focused on nabbing not just a Final Four spot, but also on a twice-to-beat advantage that the tournament will award to the top two teams of the tournament at the end of the elimination rounds.
The Green Booters will have a chance to seize the team’s fifth win in Season 75 by avoiding an upset against the struggling UE Red Warriors. The seventh-placed squad has yet to win in the tournament and has only accumulated a single draw in seven games. Last time the two teams met, the DLSU Green Booters dominated the match, but the Red Warriors had a shot of getting at least a draw until Chuck Uy’s goal that made the score 2-0 sealed DLSU’s win.
The team is expected to score more than just two goals against the league’s second-highest conceding team. Nonetheless, the Green Booters should never underestimate the Red Warriors since the team managed to pull a, 0-0, stalemate against Ateneo, the team that topped the first round of eliminations.
