SET to take the place of Ceres-Negros FC at the AFC Cup, United City Football Club said it is ready to pick up where its predecessor left off and compete despite the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
Took over from Ceres in the Philippines Football League (PFL) after the “Busmen” decided to fold up, United City is now working at maintaining the club’s competitiveness both in the PFL and the AFC Cup.
The AFC Cup is Asia’s secondary club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation where Ceres was a steady participant in the last few years as champion of the PFL.
Its resumption was delayed by the pandemic but it is angling to return on Sept. 23.
Since assuming the spot of Ceres in the PFL, United City is now tasked to continue what the Busmen had done in the competition this year, something the team said it is ready to take on.
To help it in its quest, the club made sure to keep the core of Ceres intact, signing staples like Stephan Schrock, Bienvenido Maranon, OJ Porteria, Dennis Villanueva, Sean Kane, Takashi Odawara, Hikaru Minegishi, Manny and Mike Ott.
It was not able to secure the return of coach Risto Vidakovic but it is hopeful that its new coach, to be named anytime this week, would be able to do the same kind of job that the Serbian coach did.
Given the limitations presented by the pandemic, particularly in conducting training, United City co-founder Eric Gottschalk admits some challenges have to be dealt with. But, nonetheless, they are determined to work their way through them.
“We are stuck mostly at home and we cannot train yet. But we have come up with training programs for our players. For the AFC Cup, we are looking at two scenarios. If it pushes through on Sept. 23 and we cannot train yet we may bring the players outside of the country to train. If not we will just wait from the go-signal to resume training here,” said Mr. Gottschalk in an online press conference on Wednesday.
He shared that they are excited to get back on the field and are bullish of their chances.
“Obviously this is a new situation for everybody. We haven’t played football for months and there is excitement. The players want to get back on the pitch and play regardless if it’s on the PFL level or AFC Cup level,” said the United City official.
“The good thing is all the clubs are in a similar situation with the pandemic. Nobody really has had a head start in terms of preparation. It’s a level playing level. It’s going to be interesting how the players will react,” he added.
When the AFC Cup resumes, United City will be on top of Group H with seven points built on a 2-1-0 record. – Michael Angelo S. Murillo
