01 July 2011

Azkals vow to display full potential Sunday

By Cedelf Tupas

DUBAI—A crucial “away” goal wasn’t enough for the Philippine football team to head home with a measure of satisfaction from its trip to Colombo.
Favored to prevail owing to their better ranking and perceived strong lineup, the Azkals needed a second-half fightback to forge a 1-1 draw with the Sri Lankans in the opening leg of their first-round World Cup Qualifying match Wednesday night.
And though the goal gave them an edge heading into the second leg—they only need a scoreless draw to advance against Kuwait— the first-leg result certainly stung the team which was expected to roll over the South Asians, who are lodged 13 places below them in the Fifa rankings.
The mood was generally somber at the team hotel hours after the match with the Azkals feeling they missed an opportunity to come out of the tie with a convincing win.
“We know we could have done better,” said skipper Aly Borromeo.
“We’re a little disappointed with the draw,” said striker Phil Younghusband, who expressed doubts over his availability in the second leg on Sunday because of a hamstring problem that forced him to leave the match in the 40th minute.
“I didn’t think we showed our potential and what we had to do to win.”
Said Azkals coach Michael Weiss: “We should have finished the game in the first half. I will only be happy if we win on Sunday.”
The hard, pockmarked, unlevel pitch that led to awkward bounces was partly blamed, but left winger Chieffy Caligdong offered a different, more alarming reason.
‘We were overconfident’
“We were overconfident,” admitted Caligdong, the only homegrown player who was part of the starting eleven, during
the team’s brief stopover in Dubai. “We were relaxed. That’s always the case if we play what we think is a weak team, we also play weak.”
The general feeling in the team was that the poor condition of the pitch took away the midfield passing game that the Azkals extensively worked on in their training camp in Germany.
Save for the bursts of energy from the debuting Stephan Schrock, who easily skipped past defenders at midfield, the match was reduced to an exchange of long balls, which the Azkals found difficult to cope with.
“When they (Sri Lankans) were throwing long balls, the defense line was a little iffy,” said Borromeo.
Schrock said he could have “played better with a better pitch. My performance was just 70 percent of what I can do.”
The Azkals, who fell behind on Pordi Chathura’s 43rd-minute free kick, proved more menacing in the second half, and the pressure paid off with Nate Burkey’s equalizer in the 50th minute.
The Azkals are finding solace in the thought that they will play before a packed Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on Sunday.
And many expect them not to sit back and defend the away-goal advantage.
“One-all is always a good result because we got an away goal,” said goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, who made a couple of brilliant saves, including a strong shot from Nimal in stoppage time.
“We will be looking forward to the Sunday game to win. We have to give the fans who have been supporting us what they want.”
Azkals manager Dan Palami also expects an improved performance in the second leg.
“I’m confident that the guys will be able to play the way we should play considering the crowd and the better pitch,” said Palami. “We will go for the win.”

inquirer.net

4 comments:

  1. Chieffy analized it correct: the boys are too overconfident....and thought they could smash Sri Lanka but that wasn't the case. Hope they will go into the match 110% focused and concentrated......

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  2. The Azkals had every right to feel confident but NOT OVERconfident. If it wasn't for the "accidental" goal from Gier, the score would've been 1-0 RP.

    Although the entire team and coaching staff are not making the hard, pockmarked, unlevel pitch an excuse, we cannot ignore the fact that it played a major role in how we played. Granted the players adjusted to it but we had to revise our game strategy by playing long ball which Coach Weiss did not want to do.

    With a much better pitch and the expected loud home crowd, the more determined Azkals will prevail and win 2-0 or 3-1.

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  3. When the Korean Sri Lankan coach was asked what game plan he was going to use, his reponse was “Our game plan? Why would I tell you?” .

    On the other hand, the Azkals from the coach to the manager to the players are very open about what they are going to do. Is this wise? It just gives the opposing coach a chance to formulate a strategy to counteract what we are planning.

    For instance, I noticed that the Sri Lankans were concentrating their attack in the last game on our left side, a day after we announced that
    Paul Mulders, an attacking midfielder will be used in the left back position. We were also very open about our intentions to attack, allowing the opposing coach to institute a counterattacking strategy that frustated our team.

    Even the players interviewed are very open about the team's plans. Very unprofessional. As much as I appreciate all that info, it is not helping our team any. This is not reality TV folks. This is WC qualifying. We lose and we are out.

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  4. "If it wasn't for the "accidental" goal from Gier"

    What's that supposed to mean? It's as if you're blaming Gier for the goal we conceded and you're trying to be nice about it by using the world 'accidental' and then putting in quotes which in itself is just quite odd to say the least.

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