Little Azkals ready to defend Boys 14 title

The Philippine Under 14 football team more popularly known as the Little Azkals will be backed by Leylam Shawarma as they try to defend their Boys 14 title in this year’s 10th Thirsty Football Festival slated this weekend at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) and at the Don Bosco Technology Center in Punta Princesa.

The Little Azkals defeated the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu via penalty shootout to win the title last year .

The Little Azkals will also be fielding a second team in the Boys 17.

Head coach Oliver “Bingbing” Colina said this will provide exposure for the team who will now be moving up to the Under 16 category this year.

Both teams will be known as Leylam-Little Azkals in consideration of the support provided to them by Leylam owner Ugur Tasci of Turkey, who loves the sport.

The national team will, however, be missing its team captain Darius Joseph “Jed” Diamante of Davao as well as another Davaoeno Javier Romero Salas due to academic commitments.

Those who will be coming are Manila’s Josh Miller, the assistant team captain, and Mark Winhoffer; Dumaguete’s Jose Anton Yared and Christian Floren Lapas; Dipolog’s Sean Patangan; Cagayan de Oro’s Jeremiah “JB” Borlongan and Juancho Fernandez and San Carlos City’s Shanden and Mason Vergara. They will be joined by Cebuanos Major Dean Ebarle and Lawrence “Soysoy” Colina.

Meanwhile, organizers announced that in addition to the usual photo contest, the tournament will also feature a Facebook photo contest.

The photo contest themed “Capturing Moments during the 10th Thirsty Football Cup” is open to both amateur and professional photographers with a registration fee of P100 per photographer.

Registration will be accepted until today at the Mooon Cafe—IT Park and Ayala Center branches, PhotoShop at Baseline Complex and Mandaue City branches and the Outpost in Nivel Hills.

Registration could also be done on site during the tournament dates itself.

The Facebook photo contest, on the other hand, will entail all images to be taken during the 10th Thirsty Football Festival at the CCSC.

This will follow the theme “Happy Together” which means a group of people showing happiness.

Photos can be taken either by a mobile phone, DSLR, point and shoot camera, tablet, etc. Images should be emailed to [email protected].