FC Meralco Manila hosts Ceres-Negros at Carmona

Ceres-Negros FC's Jo-oc Treyes, and FC Meralco Manila's Ric Padilla and Aris Caslib

One Philippines Football League matchup takes place this afternoon at the PFF Football facility inside the San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite, and it is the top of the table clash between FC Meralco Manila and Ceres-Negros FC.

The Sparks currently have 57 points, one point ahead of the Busmen, who have a game in hand. A win by either team ensures they finish atop the PFL table heading into the Finals Series. A draw means that Ceres-Negros' final game of the season against Global Cebu FC on November 28 still has significance.

Both teams will be heading into the matchup undermanned, as a result of injuries and suspensions.

Ceres are waiting on the medical report on Fernando Rodriguez, who incurred a knee injury in their last match, the latest addition to a group already including Filipino internationals Luke Woodland and Manny Ott, and former international Martin Steuble. Kota Kawase is currently suspended for this match. Ceres assistant Jo-oc Treyes admitted the team has had to deal with playing four matches in the last couple of weeks.

As for FC Meralco Manila, they will not have the services of both Milan Nikolic and Joaco Canas at the back, as well as the hero from their last match, Daniel Gadia. Head coach Aris Caslib acknowledges their absence, but highlights that we will see the fighting nature of the club. He also sees this as an opportunity for certain players to step up and potentially be a factor for the upcoming Finals Series. Backup keeper Ric Padilla says that the coaches have been prepping them to be ready alongside the usual starters, just for this purpose.

Both teams acknowledge the importance of finishing atop the eliminations, and will approach their matchup as such appropriately.

The match has been deemed as closed-door, but the game will be shown on both Gametime TV CH 109 and SLBN Sportsnet Channel 107, which are both exclusively available for Cignal subscribers. Streaming is available below



The match is one of two matches set to take place this weekend. The other features JPV Marikina FC against Davao Aguilas, with the both teams set to conclude their respective seasons. Their last meeting ended up with a 6-3 goalfest for JPV, although the league recently awarded a 3-0 victory to Davao pertaining to the match abandonment that took place last October.