AFC Cup preview: Kaya FC’s special anniversary moment

Look at the stars,

Look how they shine for you,

And everything you do,

Yeah, they were all yellow.

 

I came along,

I wrote a song for you,

And all the things you do,

And it was called “Yellow” 

On Tuesday night Coldplay’s anthemic “Yellow” will likely be one of the songs sung by the Sons of Mighty Kaya, the “ultras” supporters group of Kaya FC. Although they aren’t the only team in the UFL that wears that color, they are probably the first. In their twentieth year since their founding, this august Filipino footballing institution will host a home game in the AFC Cup for the first time, against Maldivian outfit New Radiant SC at Rizal Memorial on Tuesday night, March 8. Kickoff is at 7:30 pm.  

“It feels great,” says one of the club’s founders, Chris Hagedorn, who now sits on the club’s board. “It was a vision many of us wanted. I can’t believe it’s happened, and many of the old players are coming to watch.” 

That vision began in the late eighties and early nineties. The genesis of Kaya Football Club, like almost every club in the world, was a bunch of guys having fun kicking a ball around. The ball was a fuzzy American indoor soccer ball with a tennis ball-like skin. The venue was the wooden basketball court at the old Makati campus of International School Manila, where Century City now stands. The day of the week was usually Wednesday. 

According to Hagedorn, the players even used to bounce the balls off the walls like they did in the states.

Hagedorn says the 4 men who founded Kaya were himself, Bob Kovach, the ISM soccer coach, former national team player Rudy Del Rosario, and John-Rey “Lupoy” Bela-ong. They were formally designated as Kaya FC in 1996.

Kaya played in tournaments like the Globe Super Cup back then, and were one of the members of the first iteration of the UFL in 2002. Kaya was a very strong team then, one that won its share of silverware. But in those days the big 3 of Philippine football, Air Force, Navy, and Army, weren’t in the UFL yet. They still were the best teams in the land. (Hagedorn says they had difficulty paying the P15,000 entry fee at that time. But once the soldier teams did enter the UFL around 2009, they were difficult to beat.) 

But by then courier service LBC had invested into Kaya and helped the team become one of the Philippines’ finest clubs. Last year they won the UFL Cup that qualified them for this AFC Cup. 

Your skin,

Oh yeah your skin and bones,

Turn into

Something beautiful,

Do you know,

You know I love you so,

You know I love you so.

 

The list of players who have donned the colors of Kaya is long and illustrious. Apart from Del Rosario, other greats like Ali Go, (now the coach of Ceres-La Salle), Alvin Ocampo, Freddy Gonzalez, Anton Del Rosario, and Christian Lozano also played for the club. 

But one player continues to stand out. During the club’s infancy, a lanky, freckled teenager from De La Salle Greenhills honed his craft with the Kaya old-timers. His name was Alexander “Aly” Borromeo. The only Kaya player from those embryonic days still with the side today. 

Borromeo has played in almost every position, from goalkeeper to defender to striker. These days he is a centerback for Kaya, his spot when the Azkals reached the Suzuki Cup semifinals in 2010. Borromeo has 42 senior caps for the Philippines and four goals. Apart from a brief loan spell to Global in 2010-2011, Borromeo has been with Kaya’s senior side since 2003.

Just 3 months shy of 33, Borromeo is enjoying an improbable Indian Summer in his footballing career. Once thought to be done and dusted after a second catastrophic ACL injury a few years ago, Borromeo is back in the swing of things with Kaya. He started Kaya’s first AFC Cup match away at Kitchee of Hong Kong two weeks ago and was the captain too. Kitchee won 1-0. 

“I will do an ugly cry if Aly scores in the AFC Cup,” says Joel Dabao, one of Borromeo’s old Kaya team mates. Dabao has seen Aly courageously bounce back from his setbacks and he nearly needed to loosen the spigot of his tear ducts in the Kitchee match. Borromeo was close to connecting on a header in the second half.

Some of Kaya’s iconic players are mestizos like the Lozano and Gonzalez. That might give the impression that Kaya is an upper-class club. But in truth, Kaya has always given talented players from disadvantaged backgrounds a shot. Lupoy Bela-ong, for one, was from Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo’s traditional hotbed.

There are two other Ilonggos on this team, Jovin Bedic from Barotac and Shirmar Felongco from Calinog. Bedic, a rangy, creative second striker or attacking mid, nearly scored in Hong Kong. Felongco, a new signing, has been struggling with his fitness. Another player in sick bay is English striker Louis Clark, who was thrown on late in the Kitchee match in an unsuccessful effort to get an equalizer. No doubt Azkals OJ Porteria and Kenshiro Daniels will need to step up their game to get Kaya’s maiden AFC Cup goal. 

They will face a stiff challenge against a New Radiant team that gutted out a 2-2 draw against Singapore side Balestier Khalsa with a 93^rd minute equalizer from Rilwan Waleed. Kaya needs a result, preferably a win, to extricate themselves from the bottom of the Group F table.

 

Your skin,

Oh yeah your skin and bones,

Turn into

Something beautiful,

Do you know,

For you I’d bleed myself dry,

For you I’d bleed myself dry.

 

“Lupoy was a very friendly and good person. Would never cause harm on anyone. All smiles,” says Hagedorn of Bela-ong, whose brother Randy played for Air Force. 

Bela-ong was a crafty and gifted wide attacking player. But the work he put in for Kaya off the pitch was just as important. Unfortunately he paid a huge price for that eagerness to help. 

Hagedorn recounts that one day in 2002 Bela-ong went to Manila to buy material for Kaya uniforms. He got off a bus in Quezon City at night with the gear and was stabbed to death, his killers running off with the stuff he bought for the team. 

Bela-ong was only 31 years old. As a remarkable gesture of respect, Kaya immortalized Lupoy by inserting a ring of 31 stars in their official crest, one for every year he lived. These days it’s Randy, the younger Bela-ong, who answers to the name “Lupoy.”

On Tuesday night when the Kaya starting 11 take the field, it will be a culmination of two decades of hard work, dedication, heartbreak, triumph, tragedy, and glory. This is one chapter of the Kaya story that every Filipino football fan should partake of.

 

It’s true,

Look how they shine for you,

Look how they shine for you,

Look how they shine for,

Look how they shine for you,

Look how they shine for you,

Look how they shine.

 

Look at the stars,

Look how they shine for you,

And all the things that you do – Rappler.com

The game will be televised live on ABS-CBN Sports+Action with coverage beginning shortly past seven pm. The other Filipino club in the AFC Cup, Ceres-La Salle, will also play that night against Lt. Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi of Bangladesh. ABS-CBN Sports+Action will air that match the following evening. 

A week from Tuesday, Kaya has another home game in Rizal Memorial against Balestier Khalsa of Singapore.

Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH.