Keeper keeps us alive says Dooley

Male’, MALDIVES – Philippines national team head coach Thomas Dooley has said that their goal keeper kept them alive during the match against Turkmenistan today.

Speaking at the press conference Dooley said it was a difficult match for them as it was a do or die game for the opponent.

“We knew that it will be a very difficult game as they have to do everything to win this game and it was a do or die game for the opponent and it was a challenge with their physical presence. We tried to play compact and use our quick players up front.”

“The goalkeeper has won four or five games for us on his own and he doesn’t have to score a goal just to keep us alive and with all the saves he did today and saving the penalty actually helped us to win the game.”

“That doesn’t mean that anybody else didn’t do their job but most likely if we have somebody who has scored the winning goal, beautiful goal from Patrik or a beautiful goal from Phil, those are the people on the spotlight. But today we have to recognize that the keeper is the one who kept us alive”

When asked about his feelings when playing against the host country in the semifinal he replied they have to beat every team if they want to win the tournament.

“You know if you want to win the tournament then you have to beat everybody. We know that the semifinal match will be a very difficult game for us because home ground and you know a great team and if we did like today we can do what we want.”

On the other hand Turkmenistan coach Rahim Kurbanmamedov said that his players made so many mistakes in the second half and that costs the match.

“I would like to congratulate Philippines. In the first half my players did everything I told them to, but in the second half they made many mistakes,” said Rahim Kurbanmamedov.

“If we had scored the penalty we could have changed our strategy. Therefore, in the second half we had to play attacking football. This is not a lucky tournament for us.”

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