Tan Holdings earns boys U18 title

Tan Holdings FC players, coach Jersh Angeles, third from left front row, and club president Eli Arago, standing right, pose with their boys U18 fall championship trophy after beating MP United FC in a rubber match, 1-0, in the NMIFA youth league last Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field. (Contributed Photo)

Tan Holdings Football Club delivered in another rubber match against rival MP United FC, pulling off a 1-0 victory in the boys U18 division of the 2015 NMIFA Youth Fall League last Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field.

Joel Fruit scored the lone goal in the title-deciding game off a penalty kick in the 32nd minute. The Tan Holdings captain took the PK after Junsik Kim was fouled by MP United’s Bada Lee. Fruit went for a quick release, giving MP United goalie Chris Aninzo little time to react as the ball rolled past through the center and into the back of the net.

After Fruit’s goal, MP United made repeated attempts to tie the count in the second half, but failed. The closest opportunity came under the 10-minute mark of the match with Sunjoon Tenorio chasing the ball down the right field inside the penalty area and ahead of Tan Holdings defenders. Tenorio could have taken the shot, but the angle was a bit tough, so he decided to pass the ball to Kyle Chung who was surging to the center. Chung kicked the ball, which had a good line, as it was rolling straight, but Alan Hinson stepped into the play and partially deflected the ball, changing its direction and giving goalie Josh Galarion room to pick up the leather for the save of the day.

Hinson and Galarion nearly collided in their attempts to prevent the ball from rolling down the net, while Chung hollered in frustration, as it was the second time he had the chance to score for MP United. Early in the second half, he got a pass from one of his teammates inside the penalty area and was momentarily left open, but his shot was way too high to the right.

After Chung’s miss, MP United kept attacking, but Tan Holdings held strong on defense, kicking the ball out on many occasions.

Tan Holdings and MP United played the rubber last weekend as they ended up tied for the top spot after the two-round robin regular season. They held identical 5-0-1 win-draw-loss record with MP United forcing the playoff following a 1-0 win in the final regular season match last Nov. 21.

The rivals were in the same situation during the spring season this year as they posted identical 7-1-1 slates in the three-round regular season. Tan Holdings went on to win the deciding match, 2-1, with Fruit and Cosmos Kim scoring one goal apiece to end MP United’s two-year reign in the division.

“Our boys pressured MP United all the way. They were told to do that after we lost last month. They were really frustrated as we needed only a draw to win the fall championship, but they had a lapse on defense and let Kennedy (Izuka) score,” coach Jersh Angeles said.

Angeles was talking of Izuka’s lob from the left field in the second half, as the latter had a clear shot against a disorganized Tan Holdings defense.

“After the loss, I told the boys to learn from that mistake and challenged them to play better defense the next time we play MP United. They had to stay with their man 100 percent of the time and put pressure on MP United’s attackers. You saw that pressure when Alan challenged the shot of Kyle,” Angeles added.

Meanwhile, Angeles said they are dedicating the fall championship to the late Se Young Kim, who played for the club in the spring season this year before passing away in Korea due to a vehicular accident.