ILOILO City -- Mendiola United of the National Capital Region overwhelmed Iloilo, 6-0, Sunday to bag the third Adidas Cup Under-19 national football crown in front of a disappointed hometown crowd of 3,000 at the Barotac Nuevo pitch.
What was expected to be a close match turned into a rout as the Mendiola booters exploited their superior skills in giving the hosts a textbook lesson in football en route to completing a five-game sweep of the tournament.
Already handicapped by the absence of starters Joebel Bermejo and Rene Suganob, serving one-game suspensions for previous infractions, Iloilo was reduced to eight men as Cyril Castellanos, Roderick Suner and Ramil Guillergan were thrown out in succession for dangerous and unnecessary tackles.
Dumaguete rallied from a two-goal deficit to subdue M'lang National High School of Cotabato, 7-2, to cop third place in the event sponsored by Adidas and backed by Globe Telecoms.
Awarding the trophies to the winners were Barotac Nuevo Mayor Pedro Hautea, Philippine Football Federation general secretary Chris Monfort and Iloilo Football Association president Carlos "Titus" Perez Jr.
"I'd like to thank schools like Letran, San Beda, UST, La Salle Zobel and Taft and the University of Asia Pacific for lending their players to play for the squad," said Mendiola coach Aris Caslib. "It was truly a team effort by everybody."
With the visitors dominating throughout, Peter Arevalo set the tone of the match with a clinical strike in the 20th minute, booting a 30-footer from center that passed through two Iloilo defenders, goalie Anthony Juarez before hitting the bottom of the net.