Youth footballers rising

The Philippine Football Federation Youth National Team has been slowly going up the ranks in the Philippines Football League, thanks to its coach who has ties with FC Barcelona.

Head coach Sergi Mascarell, who worked in the famed FC Barcelona academy La Masia said he wants the boys to commit to building up the play and press whenever they are defending.

“When we don’t have the ball, we don’t have the ball, we want to create one situation in order to get it back,” Mascarell said, called the shots for the squad at the start of the season.

“We want to have the ball and set the rhythm of the game. We want to have the position of the ball, and we won’t go to the field to the opponent.”

The Youth National Team had a rocky start, absorbing a 0-2 loss against Cebu FC and a 0-4 loss to Stallion Laguna FC.

But then, they picked up a scoreless draw against Maharlika Taguig FC last Saturday before pulling off a 1-2 win over Mendiola FC 1991 three days later.

Mascarell, 52, said wants to see them play consistently against heavyweights such as Stallion Laguna FC and defending champion Kaya FC-Iloilo.

“For the progress, every moment, in every game, we have more competitive. We have more rhythm and more resources to make a good game,” Mascarell said.

Mascarell’s inclusion makes sense considering current national men’s football team head coach Albert Capellas worked in FC Barcelona B.

Even PFF technical director Josep “Coco” Ferre worked for FC Barcelona Escola before becoming the national team coach in 2022 and eventually a technical director for the Philippine Football Federation.

“We worked with coach Sergi before in La Masia. So I know his ability to develop players,” Ferre said.

“He changed a lot of the players’ paths. I’ve seen him how players coached by him would go on to improve in such a way that will attract professional clubs to sign these players.”