Early goals foiled Azkals’ gameplan, says Schrock

Photo by Tristan Rafael Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

“Sometimes, you just have to bite the lemon.”
A sorry Stephan Schrock emerged out of the Philippine Azkals’ dugout as the team licked their wounds after a 5-1 beatdown at the hands of Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

READ: Uzbekistan routs PH Azkals, 5-1, in World Cup qualifiers

The Fil-German midfielder rued the early two goals from the Uzbeks, which he said, completely threw the Azkals off of their game.
“Unfortunately, it changed our game plan for the whole 90 minutes. We knew we had the opportunity to beat the team, but if the first two shots went in, that’s football,” he said, as he looked for the right words to utter.
Though the 50-plus discrepancy in world rankings between the two squads proved to be evident in the match, Schrock knew the Azkals still had a number of great things going their way.
Unfortunately, he’s not on the right mindset to pinpoint those.
“It’s hard because of the first two early goals. Everything changed. Uzbekistan was dropping back, waiting for counters. It’s hard to find some positive things. There were still some positive things but at the moment, I can’t think of it,” he said.
Though he didn’t say it, Schrock did perform well for the squad despite coming off as a substitute. He scored the lone Philippine goal at the 68th minute, sending his free kick from almost the middle of the field to the back of the net.
“I just tried to give my best to win some duels and find some space. It didn’t work that well, but still, I was ok,” he said.
With the Azkals now preparing for North Korea on  October 8  in their next match at the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers, Schrock hopes that the squad does learn a lot of important lessons from this rout.
“You have to review the game so that you’ll know what you’re going to do much better the next time,” he said.