Kaya ends skid, sweeps Ilocos United

Kaya FC-Makati XI vs Ilocos United FC

Jordan Mintah's 34th minute header was enough to propel Kaya FC-Makati to a 1-0 victory over Ilocos United in the lone Philippines Football League matchup on Sunday at the EPQ Stadium in Ilocos Sur.

Robert Lopez Mendy beat his defender, then looped in a cross over to the far post, which Mintah nodded in. Although it was the lone goal of the match, Kaya had plenty of scoring opportunities that they could not convert.

On the defensive end, Masanari Omura stepped up for the visitors, leading a back line that had to do some shuffling during the match, with Julian Matthews replacing Kenshiro Daniels and Woody Ugarte replacing Jalsor Soriano. The shutout was also their fifth of the season.

In the post-match press conference, Kaya head coach Noel Marcaida said, "We needed this win, we needed these 3 points. It's the buildup for us to get back into the winning momentum. I think Kaya FC played well from start to finish. But the game looked tough because we kept on missing goal scoring opportunities. I think we could have finished the game as early as the first half if we finished all our chances." He also noted that "We need our players to have more confidence in front of goal, to have more composure, and to be more clinical."

Omura added, "We couldn't finish in the first half. We had a lot of chances. If we finish three or four goals it would've been easy to win, but that's football. But even if we scored just one, we didn't concede a goal." When asked about the defensive adjustments, he says, "It wasn't really difficult. Julian used to play in the starting 11. Woody (Ugarte) came on in the back line and that was a little bit hard, but I just said to him, 'We are winning 1-0, just sit back. As long as we don't concede, we win.'"

Noel concludes, "But despite the chances missed, we accept this wholeheartedly. I think the outlook is positive. The main objective at the start of the league was to finish in the top four, so I think we're still on the right track. We just keep moving on and keep improving."

With the win, Kaya ends its six-game run without a victory, and also moves them back up to second place with 35 points, one ahead of Global Cebu FC. At the same time, it increases the gap to JPV Marikina FC and Stallion Laguna FC in the race to the top four spots that guarantee postseason play.