INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines kissed its qualification hopes goodbye in the AFC Under-16 Championships after absorbing a 9-0 drubbing from Indonesia Wednesday night at the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City.

Clearly overmatched, the hastily-formed RP nine was down 5-0 at halftime and eventually fell to its third straight defeat in the five-team qualifying tournament.

Hadi Wibowo and Purwa Putra each scored twice for Indonesia, which moved up to second with four points.

The Filipino booters have surrendered a total of 25 goals in the tournament, including a 12-0 loss to Japan and 4-1 defeat from Chinese-Taipei.

They wrap up their campaign against Bangladesh Thusrday.

Meanwhile, Japan advanced to the main tournament in Nepal with a 5-0 crushing of Chinese-Taipei for its third straight win.