MANILA – Kaya Futbol Club-Iloilo’s bid for a second consecutive Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League stint was foiled.
The Iloilo City-based football club suffered a 5-0 shutout to Sydney FC in the preliminary play-off of the 2022 AFC Champions League on Tuesday night at the Netstrata Jubilee Stadium in Australia.
The home team imposed its presence from start to finish against the defense of Kaya-Iloilo to earn the right to play to the tournament proper of the AFC Champions League later this year.
Sydney opened the scoring in the half-hour mark as Trent Buhagiar took advantage of the miscue of the Kaya-Iloilo goal keeper Zach Banzon to convert from close range.
Sydney widened the lead further to start the second half with Brazilian Bobo shooting past the defense of Banzon at the 47th minute mark to make it a 2-0 count.
Two minutes later, the home squad continued to attack the defense of Banzon with Rhyan Grant converted a spot free kick from a foul drawn from a Kaya-Iloilo player.
English striker Adam Le Fondre added to Kaya-Iloilo’s misery as he knocked in back-to-back goals at the 71st and 81st minute mark to seal the deal for Sydney.
The Iloilo City-based booters have closed opportunities to score several times but the tight defense by the Sydney FC prevented them from completing the target.
All is not lost, however, for the reigning Copa Paulino Alcantara champions as they will be relegated to the 2022 AFC Cup group stage, which is to be held in Indonesia also this year.
Kaya-Iloilo is to be bracketed with Indonesia’s Bali United, Malaysia’s Kedah Darul Aman, and Cambodia’s Visakha FC in Group G of the competition./PN
