Azkals vow to display full potential Sunday

AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena

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, duringthe 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.”