MANILA – Kaya Futbol Club-Iloilo and Dynamic Herb-Cebu settled for a 1-1 draw in the 2022-2023 Philippines Football League on Sunday afternoon at the DH-Borromeo Sports Complex in Cebu City.
Daizo Horikoshi opened the scoring for the Iloilo City-based booters but it was equalized by Dynamic Herb’s Jacob Liao. The fourth installment of the “Visayas Derby” ended in stalemate.
During their first meeting last August 14, 2022, Kaya-Iloilo scored a 3-0 victory over Dynamic Herb-Cebu but the Cebuanos responded with a pair of 3-2 victories, including one at the Iloilo booters’ homecourt.
Horikoshi surged Kaya-Iloilo ahead at 1-0. He tapped in a pass by Mar Diano, who got the ball from a linkup between his teammates Jhan Melliza and Simone Rota, at the seventh minute.
Dynamic Herb-Cebu’s retaliation came in the 19th minute as Liao knocked in a pass by Daniel Gadia from inside the box after their teammate JB Borlongan missed on a free kick attempt.
Both clubs had numerous chances to take the lead, but their backlines held on, which favored Kaya-Iloilo more especially in the endgame when Cebu failed to turn two free kicks into a goal.
The outcome moved Kaya-Iloilo closer to its first-ever League championship with both teams having three games each remaining in the schedule in the fourth round of the season.
Kaya-Iloilo remained at top spot in the standings with 46 points, on 15 victories, three losses and a draw, while Dynamic Herb-Cebu is at second with 44 points, on 13 wins, five draws and a loss.
Kaya-Iloilo’s remaining matches were against Mendiola 1991 Football Club on April 30, Maharlika Manila Football Club on May 20 and finally Stallion Laguna Football Club on May 27.
Dynamic Herb-Cebu, on the other hand, will clash with upset conscious Stallion Laguna twice next month before capping off their season campaign against Azkals Developmental Team./PN
