Philippines Prove Doubters Wrong, S'pore Runners-Up

The Philippines reigned supreme at the Lion City Cup (LCC), defeating Cambodia 3-1 at the Jalan Besar Stadium on July 13 to lift the Under-16 boys' trophy.

- Samuel Tan

With two wins and a draw, they topped the four-team group with seven points, one above hosts Singapore who beat Hong Kong 4-1 in the later match.

While the title will undoubtedly boost the Philippines' morale going forward, Player of the Match and tournament top scorer Aaron Thomas Long said that winning the LCC was motivation long before a ball had even been kicked.

"There's people on social media who were trying to speak bad about us and we had to clear that out of our minds and play to prove them wrong," said the 16-year-old forward.

"People from our home country (were) talking bad about players selected from specific areas and that it seemed unfair. It's a dream come true to prove each and every single one of them wrong."

Coach Tetsuya Tsuchida believes his team deserve to win the tournament, adding: "The players (put in) really hard work to get these results."

However, they got off to a sluggish start. Cambodia, who were winless and goalless after two games, finally got on the scoresheet after just three minutes.