Gentle Giants bow to Singaporean club

Cebu FC got a taste of regional club competition after absorbing a 1-3 loss to BG Tampines Rovers of Singapore in the ASEAN Club Championship late Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

Cebu FC coach Glenn Ramos offered no excuses, saying that they were simply outclassed by the Stags in their very first encounter in the regional competition that features the best club teams in Southeast Asia.

“First, the players are doing good, but we have to check for errors, especially keeping the ball position and secondly, we were always outmarked, especially in the transition from defending to attack,” Ramos said.

“We have to also work on the patience of the players that when they have the ball in position, they should keep the ball on their feet.”

With the setback, the Gentle Giants are facing a tougher road in Group A as they battle heavyweights like Selangor FC of Malaysia, BG Pathum United of Thailand, last season’s finalist Cong An Ha Noi FC of Vietnam and defending ASEAN and Thai League 1 champion Buriram United.

Only the top two teams per group will advance to the knockout stages after a single round robin format.

Ramos hopes they will be able to make adjustments when they play against last season’s finalist Cong An Ha Noi on 24 September at 8 p.m. at the Hang Day Stadium in Hanoi.

“I think we have enough time for the second match of this group stage and this group stage is not that low level of football,” Ramos said.

“We compete with high level clubs so this is a challenge for us to bounce back in our team. I hope that in the second match in Vietnam, the team and all the players recover from their injuries.”