Men’s Football Team Standings as of Sunday 6:00 PM.
| TEAM | PLAYED | WIN | DRAW | LOSS | POINTS | SCORED | CONCEDED | DIFFERENCE |
| ADMU | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 23 | 9 | 1 | 8 |
| FEU | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 32 | 6 | 26 |
| DLSU | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 20 | 7 | 13 |
| UP | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 5 |
| UST | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 17 | -8 |
| NU | 10 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 26 | -20 |
| UE | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 26 | -24 |
The Green Booters defeated the Tamaraws to keep an astonishing four-game winning streak alive last January 23 at the Ateneo De Manila University’s Ocampo Football Field in Quezon City.
In the 82nd minute of the game, Gelo Diamante hustled a loose ball and dribbled it inside the net past the defending keeper for a victory goal.
Currently on its fourth straight victory, the team is about to reach its target to secure the second seed spot. Getting into the top two will give the Taft-based XI a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four. In addition, the win bounced the team back to the race for first place.
Coach Hans Smit explained, “It is not as much as beating FEU, it is more of how we played. This is the [Green Booters’] best game.”
Throughout the game, the Green-and-White dominated possession of the ball through tough defense.
One goal down
Coach Smit admitted, “The goal that they had, we gave it up. It was not their doing. It was ours.”
At the start of the game, the Green-and-White squad faced an attack from FEU. Jesus Melliza from FEU fired a chip shot above the DLSU’s keeper Patrick Deyto to give for former’s squad the lead.
Smit explained, “We were dominating [but they grabbed that] one chance, one bad mistake.”
Two goals to victory
The two teams clashed and made aggressive plays in the second half of the game. In just seven minutes into the half,La Salle’s Nathan Alquiros took a shot from outside the left side penalty box. The opposing team’s keeper Jestoni Celeste managed to block the shot, but Gelo Diamante drilled the loose ball inside the defenseless goal.
Tied one all, DLSU’s Charleston Uy surged from the left wing along with Gio Diamante at the middle and Gelo Diamante at the right. Uy pushed the ball forward, but lost it a few feet from the goal.
Gelo Diamante struggled to recover the ball.He maintained enough balance to move the ball forward. The La Salle supporters roared after the younger Diamante crashed inside the goal along with the ball to deliver DLSU’s win.
Other results: NU 1-0 UE; UST 0-0 ADMU; UP is on bye.
