GLOBAL Football Club brazes for a tough do-or-die showdown with Singapore’s Tampines Rovers in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Preliminary Round Phase tonight at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
At the forefront of Global FC’s campaign in the 7:30 p.m. match is team captain Misagh Bahadoran, who vowed that his side’s campaign won’t last only 90 minutes.
“Our mentality is to bring out our best and biggest game,” Bahadoran told the pre-match conference on Monday at the Century Park Hotel. “We have to go 100 percent, this is the biggest tournament for all clubs in Asia.”
Global FC, the reigning United Football League (UFL) champion, is considered an underdog to Tampines Rovers, runner-up in the Singapore League which beat Global twice in the Singapore Cup last year.
Bahadoran said he wanted to fulfill his dream of beating the Rovers and push Global FC deeper into the tournament.
“It’s such an honor to be part of this big tournament especially with our club [Global],” the veteran Azkals striker said.
Bahadoran’s fellow Azkals Amani Aguinaldo, Hikaru Minegishi, Matt Hartmann, Patrick Deyto, Paolo Bugas, Marco Casambre and Dennis Villanueva are also playing for Global FC, coached by seasoned Japanese Toshiaki Imai.
Imai said he sees potential in the team.
“They have good ability. They just need to cooperate together so I could form good combinations,” said Imai, a former coach of the Mongolia and Chinese Taipei national teams. “I think they will show good performance and team work.”
Tampines Rovers is actually one of several stumbling blocks for Global FC in the tournament. Potentially waiting for the Philippine team are Brisbane Roar of the Australian A-League, Chinese Super League team Shanghai Greenland Shenhua, which is led by Argentinian icon Carlos Tevez.
If Global FC loses, it will be relegated to next month’s group stages of the Asian Football Confederation Cup 2017 where they are bracketed in Group F with JDT of Malaysia, Magwe of Myanmar and either Boeung Ket Angkor of Cambodia or Lao Toyota of Laos.
Image credits: Roy Domingo