On Leaving Out Phil and James

Credit to the owner of the Photo

Right now, there is much ado about this particular article. The information was released when nothing else was on and rightfully enough, it got everyone's attention.




Part of the fuss is on the delivery, I mean if you are going to deliver important news, shouldn't one do this in person or via voice instead of reading it via a text?

What intrigues me more is the reasoning for the exclusion.

The best-case scenario for this kind of move would be that the brothers were held out for the upcoming semifinals of the RHB Singapore Cup. Phil and James are probably the most important cogs of the Loyola Meralco Sparks, who will face 3-time S-League champions Tampines Rovers on October 4 and 7, which is one week after the PFPC. In fact, James is the club's captain and Phil is the main goal-scoring threat.

As for the worst? It could possibly reflect on some kind of divisive things that the sport in the country does not need as of the moment. Hopefully this scenario is not what to take place.

The only thing for certain is that only one side has been heard, and the other will most definitely present their case during the press conference for the PFPC, which is scheduled on Monday.

The optimist in me says that this is really an overreaction. The main objective is the Suzuki Cup, and as part of getting towards that goal, we have the PFPC. Of course, we would like to win football matches and tournaments, but this is a means for Hans Michael Weiss to see what he has and check out combinations that work and won't work in a true competitive setting. HMW already knows what he can get from his Euro-based guys and from the YHs. The PFPC is really a stage for the locally-based players to step and show what they are capable of. Hopefully, the ones who were called up can handle the challenge. And these are the guys:

Goalkeepers: Eduardo Sacapano, Ref Cuaresma

Defenders: Roel Gener, David Basa, Matthew Uy, Demitrius Omphroy, Jason Sabio, Carli de Murga, Jeffrey Christiaens

Midfielders: Emelio Caligdong, Nestorio Margarse, Patrick Reichelt, Jason De jong, OJ Porteria, Misagh Bahadoran, Marvin Angeles, Marwin Angeles, Anto Gonzalez

Forwards: Denis Wolf, Ian Araneta