By EARL VICTOR ROSERO
Emelio "Chieffy" Caligdong (13) scored another goal against the Under-23 Olympic team of Bahrain early morning Tuesday, but the host booters punched through the defense of the men's national football team with two goals in the first half and a clincher in the last minutes of the tune-up match.
Coach Michael Weiss decided to include Angel Guirado (12) and Phil Younghusband (10) in the starting line-up this time around. James Hall (18) and Jose "OJ" Porteria (15) had their slots in the first friendly in Bahrain.
Hall had the jersey number Nate Burkey used in the two matches versus Sri Lanka while Burkey wore Stephan Schrock's 17. Porteria's 15 was Ricardo Becite's number in Round 1 of the World Cup Qualifiers.
Guirado and Younghusband have been nursing injuries sustained in Round 1 against Sri Lanka. They were not in the first eleven of the previous test match with the host team. At the grandstand, Filipina-Bahraini Zoei Al-Shaikh was tweetcasting again as Dimples_426 to her Twitter followers in the Philippines.
The friendly turned rough early on because of a hard tackle by Jason de Jong (25) versus a Bahraini player. Medics brought in a stretcher and carried the fallen player off the pitch. Bahrain tried to exact revenge by attacking the goal. Keeper Ed Sacapano (22) was able to intercept. But Bahrain soon made two more attempts just a while later and those shots went in.
Many minutes of passing and tackling in the midfield went by and then Caligdong snuck in a goal with a header at close range just before the half-time break. But that was to be the only Philippine goal in the match.
In the second half, Weiss made several substitutions so the reserves will get some playing time but he kept Sacapano on guard at the goal. Bahrain scored a third time as the match was about the end. Weiss was not pleased because the striker met little resistance as he approached the goal and sent the ball in. --OMG, GMA News
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9 hours ago
The third goal was so easy. the defender (aly) did not defend very well. I hope they dont do that on their official game.
ReplyDeleteAly and co did not concede goals on purpose! That's just stupid. It just proves that our players are getting found out at relatively higher level. Heck, they're already getting found out as is, let alone against the likes of Bahrain even if it was their Olympic team. Therefore, as De Jong has said before, they're somewhat overrated and its true!
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