Copa Paulino Alcantara: Cebu FC opens bid with 2-0 drubbing of UP

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu Football Club Gentle Giants picked up where they left off, opening their 2023 Copa Paulino Alcantara campaign with a 2-0 whacking of the University of the Philippines (UP) at their home turf at the Dynamic Herb Borromeo Sports Complex in Cebu City.

Man of the Match Chima Uzoka of Nigeria scored a brace, one each in the first and second half, to give the Gentle Giants their first taste of victory.

“So nice, my fist home game for Cebu, I am really happy I could experience this here,” Uzoka said during the post-match press conference. “Everytime I step into the pitch, I always want to score, that’s my mentality, I want to help my team I want to achieve same goal and that’s to win.”

It was CFC’s first win under new head coach Joshua Schirmer.

“We knew it was always be a difficult game, they are well coached, good shape, good tactics, they’re exactly what we expected. To be honest, my expectation was to win the first game. I’m not so concerned about the number of goals and things like that as obviously there is still plenty of things to work on. The most important things is the 3 points and we achieve that,” Coach Schirmer said.

The American coach gamely admitted though that they were not playing at their best, and there are still a lot of adjustments to make.

Schirmer noted that it was good that they have always told the players to keep a positive atmosphere, not to get upset if they make a mistake, and to move on to the next chance, which was important for the team especially since they were missing a lot of chances.

Last Sunday’s first home game will also be the last for the Gentle Giants in Copa as they will be playing their next three games at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila. — (FREEMAN)