By Jerome S. Galunan, Jr.

Ceres-Negros FC defender Joshua Grommen flew to Bahrain, yesterday, with the Philippines U23 football team, where they will play in two friendly matches with the Bahraini squad on March 24 and 26 at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium.
The matches will serve as preparation for the 2017 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, hosted by Malaysia in August.
“A vital step in the team’s development is to play more international matches,” said Philippine Football Federation (PFF) General Secretary, Atty. Edwin Gastanes. “It is necessary they play together as much as possible so they can be familiar with each other and have cohesion.”
In December of last year, the team drew with the Malaysian U22 team at the Rizal Memorial Stadium./WDJ