Azkals’ head coach Thomas Dooley. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
A heavy defeat from a team they had already beaten early this year could just be what the Philippine Azkals need with six weeks to go before the AFF Suzuki Cup.
“If the Suzuki Cup is tomorrow, that [performance] would be a concern for me,” said Azkals coach Thomas Dooley after his squad slumped to a second friendly loss in three nights, a 1-3 drubbing at the hands of North Korea at Rizal Memorial Stadium Monday night.
“We don’t have to panic. We need those games to see what we are doing wrong. You don’t find out those when you win 3-0.”
The defeat once again exposed the Azkals’ lack of pace and their lack of discipline and organization in defense, particularly in set pieces just like in the 1-3 loss to Bahrain last Friday, when the home side gave up a goal off a corner kick.
Creating chances was also a struggle for the Azkals, who missed striker Misagh Bahadoran due to a hamstring injury.
The country’s top international scorer, Phil Younghusband, was fielded in a deep-
lying role at midfield, and hardly took a shot on goal.
Iain Ramsay was a bright spot off the bench, scoring in the 75th minute, after replacing Kevin Ingreso, who was largely ineffective for the second straight match.
Several first-choice players were also unavailable, forcing Dooley to improvise, putting several players in positions where they don’t usually play.
Some of his experiments backfired, but Dooley maintained those matches are necessary before the real battle in the Suzuki Cup, where the Azkals will face Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
The Suzuki Cup, with Burma (Myanmar) as co-host, kicks off Nov. 19.
Starting ahead of Patrick Deyto, Roland Muller showed some rust as he could have easily dealt with the two of the three goals.
Defending as a unit was also a problem for the Azkals, who gave the visitors plenty of space to operate each time they were on the final third.
“If you really want to make everyone happy, we can play against teams we can beat and everybody will think that the preparations are perfect, but we want to play against better teams,” said Dooley. “It’s a reality check. We have to know where we are right now.”