Despite Suzuki loss, Azkals still SEA top team

THE PHILIPPINES may be out of the running in the AFF Suzuki Cup, but the Azkals will still finish the year as the top-ranked team in Southeast Asia.

Despite dropping a couple of places to No. 130, the Azkals kept their status as the region’s best team in the latest International Football Federation (Fifa) rankings.

The rankings, which put weight on results of the past four years, remain a strong indicator of the Azkals’ development since 2010 when they hovered near the bottom of the chart.

“The rankings really show how far our team has come but we also know that we need to take another big step in the next few years to justify our ranking,” said Azkals manager Dan Palami. “We are still putting in effort and resources to develop a team that the country will continue to support and be proud of.”

The Azkals collected 220 points for the month with emphatic wins over Laos and Indonesia in the Suzuki Cup taken into account. The victory over Indonesia is the first in 80 years by the Philippines.

Azkals coach Thomas Dooley downplayed the rankings saying it could be misleading after the Azkals crashed out of the semifinals of the Suzuki Cup for the third straight time.

“The Fifa World Ranking is never really a measurement of where things stand,” he said. “You do not play the same games. Some teams play more games, some less and the opposition is of a different standard. The Fifa rankings do not show which team is better and which is not.”

Thailand, which is ranked 142, eliminated the Philippines, 3-0, on aggregate in the Suzuki Cup semifinals. The Thais are actually on track to win a fourth crown after prevailing, 2-0, in the first leg of the finals against Malaysia.