Kaya FC–Iloilo made an emphatic return to action in the Philippines Football League on Saturday afternoon, dispatching of JPV Marikina, 4-1, at the Biñan Football Stadium. The Ghanaians did the damage for the visitors, with Jordan Mintah bagging his first hat-trick of the season, and Alfred Osei heading in his second goal of the campaign.
“I’m so excited. Every striker wants to score a hat-trick (three goals in a game). I thank the players for helping me score my first hat-trick in the league,” said Mintah, who was named Man of the Match. “It’s all about hard work and how we respond from training to the game. We try to score more goals in training, and it happened in the game as well.”
After an even 16 minutes of football, Kaya had the perfect opportunity to open the scoring from the penalty spot after JPV’s keeper clattered Mintah inside the box. Jalsor Soriano walked up to take the penalty, but his soft strike was well saved. Iloilo eventually broke the deadlock 10 minutes later, with Mintah capitalizing on a mistake between Marikina’s David Basa and Felipe Tripulca.
The Ghanaian forward then bagged his second with the last kick of the first half — a wonderful outside of the boot finish from the edge of the box. The goal was the subject of some controversy, as JPV felt that Kaya took advantage of what they felt should’ve been a FairPlay situation. It began with Connor Tacagni challenging for a 50-50 ball that was cleared out by Marikina’s Suzuki Tsubasa. In the clash, Suzuki was hurt and needed to be replaced. From the subsequent throw in, Osei received the ball, released it to Mintah, whose quick thinking stunned the home side.
“I don’t have any problem with that [play]. I think they thought there was a need for FairPlay, and it’s not a FairPlay [situation], and it’s not a foul. The defender cleared the ball,” he said. “We just reacted first and we got a second goal quick. The referee made his decision. I don’t have anything more to say about that.”
“It just so happened that we were really switched on, we really wanted it, and we were really hungry to score a goal — we were successful with that,” said Kaya head coach Noel Marcaida.
10 minutes into the second half, Mintah completed his hat-trick. From a long ball, Jordan beat his defender to the bounce, then cooly froze the keeper with a little hesitation, before passing the ball into the net. Jay Baguiro pulled one back for the hosts not long after, but the comeback didn’t seem likely. Osei then iced the game with a well taken header from a corner kick.
“It’s the second time of the season we’ve scored four goals. I think it only shows that we can score a lot of goals, and that we create lots of chances,” said Marcaida. “We’re happy that despite the disappointment [of the match cancellation in Iloilo], we were able to get a comfortable win.”
