MANILA, Philippines – Café France and Tanduay, two of the longest tenured teams in the PBA D-League, rekindle their rivalry when they face off on Monday in the Aspirants' Cup at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

Café France will have an almost entirely new squad, with Coach Egay Macaraya integrating new recruits Paul Desiderio and Michael Calisaan to his battle-tested Bakers.

"This is a very interesting game for us," Macaraya said. "It's youth vs. experience, but as I've always said, we will give them a good fight, and just hope for a positive result."

Rod Ebondo remains the cornerstone for Café France, and Tanduay coach Lawrence Chongson believes limiting the Congolese big man will be the key for the Rhum Masters in Monday's showdown.

"Ebondo will be the biggest thorn for us to hurdle," said Chongson. "Matinding pagsubok agad ang pagdadaanan namin against a perennial D-League contender in Café France."

Nevertheless, Chongson is confident that his team can be competitive, especially with Mark Cruz leading the charge.

"We'll just have to rely on own team build-up and the process that we undertook in the past 50 days," he said. "Hopefully, we'll just continue to grow as a team as the long season rolls along."

Game time is at 5 p.m.

In the first game of the double-header, Racal Ceramica takes on guest-team Blustar Detergent at 3 p.m.

New Tile Masters coach Jerry Codiñera said they cannot be overconfident in the season opener, as they go up against an upstart Dragons side composed of the Malaysian youth team.

"We will play conservatively against them," he said.

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