Home United ousts Loyola

SINGAPORE—The Loyola Meralco Sparks’ campaign in the Singapore Cup ended Thursday night, following another defeat to defending champion Home United at Jalan Besar Stadium.

The Sparks, who reached the semifinals two years ago, absorbed a 1-2 loss in the second leg as they bowed out to the S-League side, 1-4, on aggregate.

Phil Younghusband scored the only goal for the United Football League side, firing from just outside the box just before the hour-mark.

But it proved to be a consolation as the Sparks failed to mount a comeback after going 0-2 down just 30 minutes into the match.

Hoping to give the Sparks an added threat going forward, Loyola coach Vince Santos inserted Younghusband to the starting lineup.

And the move almost paid dividends just eight minutes into the match as the Loyola striker recovered the ball at the edge of the area before firing a low shot that was saved to the post by the Home United goalkeeper.

Struggling to keep in step with Home United on the counter-attack, the Sparks’ backline was constantly stretched early on.

It took a burst of speed from Qiu Li to give Home United the opening as the former Singapore international earned the penalty that led to the goal of Lee Kwan-woo.

Qiu snuffed out all hopes of a comeback with a close-range strike in the 30th minute.