One Taguig only needed an early blitz to go top of the PFL table after it blasted Philippine Army for five without reply to cap off the Saturday tripleheaders last evening at the Rizal Memorial. Flexing their top-flight prowess, One Taguig were merciless against the Troopers as it won their third straight match to lead the table for the first time in record speed.
Tsukasa Shimomura found the net for the first of his quickfire brace just two minutes in, tapping home the right-wing cross from compatriot Naoto HIraishi past Reid Brillantes. HIraishi then turned goalscorer in the 11th after latching on to the diagonal long ball from Patrick Grogg, then zoomed past two Army defenders to double their lead on his right foot.
Later on, Shimomura then completed his double three minutes after that when he hit his left-footed effort home after being picked out by an instinctive ball by Taguig skipper Kevin Ingreso to make it 3-0 Taguig. Yannick Tuason then practically put the finishing touches in the 22nd minute when Grogg completed his brace of dimes, slotting home from just outside six yards to give Taguig an immovable 4-0 buffer that went on until halftime.
An out-of-sorts Army could only muster just seven shots all match long, five of which came from former Green Archers United target man Jimuel Areola in which only twice went on target. But that was irrelevant for Taguig who showed the gulf in class even wider with their dominating display, which was capped off from a close-ranged rocket by substitute Milad Beghandom with a quarter of an hour remaining.
Philippine Army: Brillantes (GK), Soriano, Becite © (Decena 79’), Palacio (Bernarte 24’), Villaseñor, Solen (Cortes 24’), Bernardo, Gatinao (Bedia 79’), Ariola, Celiz, Sumaylo (Monterona 46’)
One Taguig: Bencio (GK), Custodio, Ingreso © (Beghandom 47’), Ferrero, Grogg, Tuason (Bahadoran 84’), Gallantes (Jarvis 46’), Usman, Dutosme, Hiraishi, Shimomura
