#ACL 2023 Preview: VS Yokohama F. Marinos Match 4: Rematch on Home Turf | Presser Quotes from Coach Colum Curtis & Simone Rota
Kaya FC-Iloilo (PHI) vs. Yokohama F. Marinos (JPN)
Tuesday, November 7, 2023 | Kickoff at 8:00 PM (PST)
Rizal Memorial Stadium, Philippines
Manila, Philippines — Kaya FC-Iloilo’s 2023 AFC Champions League campaign is now past its halfway mark after having faced each team in Group G once. The Philippine representatives are looking to capture their first points of the competition in the return legs, beginning with tomorrow’s home rematch against the reigning Japanese champs Yokohama F. Marinos.
Coach Colum Curtis’ side gave a good account of themselves in their recent loss against the group favorites, but ultimately came up short in front of the Marinos faithful. Undeterred, he looks forward to Kaya continuing to build on their found continental form—this time with a much friendlier crowd spurring them on.
“I’m looking forward to testing ourselves again against top level opposition.” Curtis stated. “In the first game against Yokohama, I was very impressed with the players’ performance. I think we can take good credit for how we played, and if you had said before the game that some individual errors would cost us but we’d have some good chances ourselves—we’d be happy with that.”
“Since we’ve come back from Yokohama, the boys have been training really well and we’re just focused on the performance.” he continued. “To be realistic, we’re not expected by anyone on the planet to get a result against Yokohama—but we have to have belief in ourselves, and we know we were very, very close in Japan.”
Azkals representative and Kaya veteran Simone Rota—who celebrates his birthday today—gave his thoughts on this huge rematch tomorrow on home soil.
“Well for Philippine football, I think it’s a pleasure to host a team like [Yokohama]; but Coach is giving us as a team and as individuals the right information to play even better than the last game against them, and I’m looking forward to that.”
“In every game at a high level, the most important thing is the communication of each player,” Rota explained. “The last game in Japan, we communicated very well—so we’ll try to add a little bit more of that and play better and try to give our fans the win.”
Iloilo are on a high mere days after capturing their fifth consecutive Copa Paulino Alcantara Final berth, but Coach Colum emphasized to his squad the importance of hitting the reset button for this huge match coming up.
“Yokohama is a different animal than what we are coming up against domestically. You can see with our style of play and the concepts tactically that they’re much different,” remarked Curtis. “We have to take everything and use it to our advantage, like the fact that we’re more accustomed to playing at Rizal. They play with a really high rhythm and pass at a good tempo, but they won’t be able to replicate that here to the best of their ability.”
Simone and the rest of the Kaya squad have shifted gears and are locked in, looking to put on a better performance in front of the home fans.
“I hope tomorrow there’ll be a lot of people coming to watch Kaya and support Philippine football,” said Simone. “At the end of the day, the ball is round; so we don’t have to think about extra things. We just have to think about our performance and what Coach asks of us.”
“It should be fantastic for everyone, and we hope to send everyone home from the stadium with a smile, Coach Curtis stated.” The home crowd, it’ll give us that slight advantage that we most certainly need.”
Tickets will be sold at the entrance when the Rizal Memorial Stadium gates open on Tuesday at 6:00 PM, and the team’s pleased to announce that official Kaya FC-Iloilo jerseys will be available to purchase at the venue. The match will also be streamed live via the AFC’s YouTube channel, kickoff is at 8:00 PM (PST). See you there and bring the noise, Una Kaya!
