Joaquin Collo struck in extra time as Makati Football Club nipped Asia Football School Indonesia, 1-0, to capture the Boys 13’s (2006) Cup gold medal in the JSSL Singapore Professional Academy 7s Sunday at The Tampines Hub in Singapore.
MFC made it to Cup after finishing second place in the Group A table with 10 points and won every match in the knockout stages.
Prior to making it to the title match, MFC defeated Indonesian sides SBAI Garuda Jaya (1-0) and ASSBI (1-0) and avenged its group stage loss to JSSL FC-1 of Singapore with a masterful 1-0 win in the semifinals.
MFC also emerged victorious the Boys 10’s (2009) Plate Final against China’s Aksil 1, 1-0, and achieved a silver medal in the Boys 16’s (2003) Cup, where it even played a professional team from Australia, Perth Glory.
“Our boys 16s qualified for the Professional division, which included the likes of Arsenal, Urawa Reds, Valencia, Fulham and Perth Glory,” said SeLu Lozano, chief operating officer of MFC.
The JSSL Singapore Professional Academy 7s — the biggest youth football tournament in Asia — lured 420 teams from 17 countries this year.
MFC has also fielded in seven other teams in the three-day competition — in the boys 9s, 11s, 12As, 12Bs, 14 sand 15s brackets, as well as in the girls 14s category — the most brought from an international side. The club, which won the overall championship last year and claimed the “Paul Parker Trophy”, went on to achieve a third-place this year.
“Even with the rapid growth of the tournament in terms on number on teams participating and the level of play immensely increasing, MFC was still able to finish third in the overall championship points this year,” said Lozano.
Up next for MFC is two other international competitions, the Paris World Games and Gothia Cup in Sweden on July 6-22, where it will bring five teams consisting of 70 players to Europe.
MFC has pioneered the youth football development in the country since 1976.
