MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE) -- The Philippine Azkals carved out a hard-earned 2-0 victory over the Mongolia Blue Wolves in the first leg of their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualifying tie at the jampacked Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City on Wednesday night.
Emilio Caligdong scored the Philippines’ opening goal in the 42nd minute.
Caligdong tricked a defender near the Mongolian goal and then kicked the ball through the Blue Wolves' goalie’s legs.
The second goal was scored by Phil Younghusband in the 92nd minute, deep into injury time.
Following a sneaky pass from Jason Sabio, the Filipino-Brit midfielder muffed his attempt against a Mongolian defender.
Younghusband, however, followed this up for the team’s second goal that sent the Filipino spectators to jubilation.
The Azkals, not known for their offense, put up a solid attacking game against the Blue Wolves.
In the first half alone, the Filipinos had 7 goalscoring attempts against the Mongolians' 2 attempts.
The Azkals received a major morale boost from more than 18,000 Filipino fans who trooped to Panaad Stadium.
The Filipinos are ranked 152 in the latest FIFA ranking while the Mongolians are 182nd.
The home-and-away cup tie between the Filipinos and the Mongolians will resume on March 15 in Ulan Bator.
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14 hours ago
Goal of Chieffy is the goal of the game!!!!
ReplyDeletegreat win but unlucky not to win more than 2 goals.
ReplyDeletevietnam coach should look at this game. the mongolians are all out defending but Azkals finished the game as a winner.
Good luck for the 2nd leg
I feel sorry for Etheridge.
ReplyDeleteHe looked really bored.
I mean, really really bored. Lumalabas na nga sya sa penalty box. He was like the fifth defender, or something.
Azkals played very well, but they can not be satisfied with the result. I mean just 2-0 against an unexperienced team which played more than 65 min. with one player less on the pitch. Azkals were able to make it 3 or 4-0 but missed many chances. The Azkals should be on alert as last time Mongolia lost also 2-0 away and won 3-1 at home (even it was just Macau) but that proved that they are a strong home side as well...but i am confident that the defense of the Azakals will be good prepared and can deliver some counter attacks.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe they are reinforced with Cagara and Lucena which will make them even stronger.
So GO AZKALS!
As for the 2-0 game today, is it just me or even though we controlled most of the possession in the game, I felt that we played a more organized game in the Suzuki cup under McMenemy. There were a lot of errant passes and mistakes which would have been punished by the better SEA teams we played against.
ReplyDeleteWeiss preaches offensive football, but this can only be played effectively against good opposition if we have the players with the requisite skills for it. We would have been massacred by Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore if we played so carelessly against them leaving acres of space at the back for their players to capitalize upon.
Fortunately we have more players coming in and to be fair to Coach Weiss who has only been coaching for 3 weeks or so, but I kind of came away disappointed after watching the game. Being a German coach, I expected us to play in a more organized manner like the Germans are famous for and I saw none of that. We will have to just wait and see how things turn out against the better teams.
One thing remains the same, the poor finishing of Ian Araneta. He again wasted 5 or 6 chances in the game like he did in the previous 4 games he played. As a forward, you are expected to score goals and all he does is waste chances. We seriously need to find alternatives at that position and hopefully the new players like William Espinosa-Guerridon will pan out.
Jason de Jong did not play very well today, unlike in the Suzuki cup. I wonder if his lack of playing time with his team in Europe has something to do with it. He looks rusty and gave up the ball too much which is fatal for a defensive midfielder.
Nevertheless Congratulations are in order for winning the game 2-0. It is early under the Coach Weiss era and hopefully we play better in the future. Go Azkals.
@cjeagle
ReplyDeleteagree with you 100% man...
i felt more comfortable watching the team under McMenemy comprared last night...
they were more composed as a team in the Suzuki Cup...
We are better off playing the defensive counterattacking game rather than a slow passing offensive team...
C. Greatwich was missed in the midfield, our creativity in that area is severely lacking...
It was a win but as we all agree here it wasnt satisfying if you break down their performance. You can see the condition of the players were still not impressive. They went down a gear in the second half. On the other hand, I dont think its still fair to assess the progress of the Azkals as a team though. How many weeks have they been practicing under a new system and hardly any match practice. Two games against very raw opposition will hardly be enough to even gauge how we will react in more pressured situations. De Jong had a terrible game although I am one of his biggest admirers. But I think he came in only during the weekend. Definitely match fitness was an issue. I agree too many mistakes were committed and we could have been punished against a stronger team. However, you can see the tactical changes as we played a lot more on the wings. We put in more crosses than we probably did for the entire Suzuki Cup campaign.The surprise player to me was the younger Greatwich who showed decent pace and skill on the wing. Everyone else played to expectation. You can really appreciate how good Chiefy is against an inexperienced side. Phil's goal was like a carbon copy of his goal against Vietnam. He sort of lulls you into a false sense of security as if he is so tired and then suddenly pounces on a mistake. He could be a good actor..hahaha. We should call him Sleepy.
ReplyDeleteOn Araneta, I agree. I think he needs some competition. You can see he can hold the ball up decently and does his part up in the build up but finishing can be better definitely. Maybe thats why he is keeping his place as he does the other things properly (not excellently I might add). It will be disappointing if he doesnt hit a higher level considering all the exposure he has been given and his age as he coming up to that part of your career where you should be peaking.
ReplyDeleteNotes and Comments:
ReplyDeleteI was right about De Jong. Wikipedia says that he and his club mutually terminated his contract last January. That is why he looked so rusty and disjointed. His lack of concentration might have been due to his job situation. Hopefully he can find a club soon maybe even here in Asia.
Chiefy Caligdong's goal was fantastic and have elicited praise from even hardcore fans from other countries. He showed great technique and composure with that goal in contrast with Araneta's lack of composure.
Yup we missed our midfield general Chris Greatwich vision and runs at the goal. Unfortunately as a coach in the US, he might not be available as often as we would like.
Oh yeah, it is still early and I am still giving Coach Weiss the benefit of the doubt. I am just giving my first impressions of the game compared to what I have seen in the Suzuki cup. Playing organized is a staple of German football and I was hoping we could copy their style. Possession football requires a certain skill set which I am not sure we have attained yet. As I said, let us wait till we see them play better opponents before we can judge whether this new system works for us.
i agree with the observation on araneta. i think we should find somebody to replace him. our phil. team has leveled-up at all fronts, from the players, to the coach, to the support of the fans, thus perhaps it is time to find somebody else to fill-in the position of araneta who has the capability of finishing better.
ReplyDeleteimagine if the shots he did had a little more power and/or angle, then it could have easily converted to at least a goal.
i remember one of the comments made by one of the commentators during the Suzuki Cup that araneta was just "running and running" and not posing any threat at all at his position.
well, i just hope he exerts extra effort to level-up in the subsequent games as muffing a shot (all the more several of them), can cause frustration from the fans and the players.
be as it may, i think we are still in for a lot more good games from team philippines in the next couple of years. i just hope that we will not lose steam until we have finally established our foot as a major team to reckon with at least in asia.
@Jay...
in addition to your best actor nominee, i would also like to nominate araneta for the "as if" very frustrated look every after missing a shot last night. :)
The other people to be replaced are the ABS-CBN commentators.
ReplyDeleteNow your talking..I didnt want to start that topic as I been complaining about these people ABS is assigning since the Indonesia matches..even the UFL show is os commercial and cheezy..I cant believe they cant find better commentators. All he was saying was "what a shot"..They are so damm immature and their coverage lacked depth and analysis. Who says, "he was called for an infraction"? Have you heard that ever been used in a football game? In any game for that matter. Geez. They dont know the players..they try to use terms like "plantsa" when that wasnt the case..the mongolian was tripped. Hindi siya plinantsiya..All of us who played the game knows what a plantsa is and that was definitely not the case..Ewan ko ba..bring in some real players who know the game, know the players and can accurately comment on the flow of the match, what the players were thinking, what the referees were intending..They couldnt even see how close the ad signs were and how it was becoming a hindrance and hazard..they didnt even notice that Etheridge's jersey was almost technically illegal as at first glance it looked like it was the same color as the field players..obviously they have never read the rule book..geez..
ReplyDeleteMaybe they should hire Simon Mcmenemy as a commentator. He would have great insight on the team and is very knowledgeable about football. It is quite common to hire a former coach or player to be part of the telecast of a team. He is also very articulate. Like me he was following the game on the internet and tweeted that he was very proud of the team but also very sad that he was no longer involved.
ReplyDelete