Marcaida Happy to See Players’ Hunger Back, Lauds Mintah More than the score line, it was the fire amongst the players that pleased Noel Marcaida the most.
Just a week after a scoreless draw at the very same venue, Kaya FC–Iloilo and Mendiola FC 1991 clashed again in the Philippines Football League on Wednesday afternoon. This time, even without Mendiola having a player sent off, the result was starkly different — 5-1 in favor of Kaya.
“I think we need 10 players only so that we can play good against Kaya,” joked Mendiola head coach Dan Padernal after the match. “For me, the concentration of our backline to cope with the adjustment of the linkup with Mintah and [Kensiro] Daniels was lacking — they were quite surprised. The control of Mintah was good. When things go bad early, it’s tough to recover sometimes, especially with the hectic schedule.”
Hugely frustrated after the uninspired display in the previous meeting, Kaya head coach Noel Marcaida was pleased to see the fire back in his players.
“I’m happy that we got the three points. And not just for winning the game, but my players really showed how they wanted to push forward and score more goals,” he said. “There was a big difference in the second half. We were able to keep the ball well and create chances. We got quality deliveries as well from Jayson Panhay.”
As has been the case for Iloilo this season, Jordan Mintah was immense once more. The Ghanaian striker bagged four goals in the contest, increasing his total to 29 for the season.
“It was just a week ago that we played them and we couldn’t score even one goal. We just went back, corrected our mistakes and came out and executed what coach wanted us to do,” said Mintah after his Man of the Match performance.
“We’re very lucky to have Jordan on the team. Whenever he has that hunger and fire to score, he’ll get a goal in every game. He’s the type of person who’s very opportunistic,” added Marcaida. “We hope in every game, we’ll see this type of Jordan play. But as he says, it’s always a collective effort.”
