The Philippine Azkals will play the second
leg of their series against the Brave
Reds of Sri Lanka without a crappy rugby-turned-football field and in front
of the hometown crowd. The people who improved the Rizal Memorial Football Field said that the field is poolproof and
that’s nice. The match will be contested in front of pro-Azkals crowd and
despite of the heat (that we all know will turn afterwards into rain) they are
going all out to support the blue and gold.
Nice
color by the way.
If the
Azkals score two or more and the match ends up with a tie, the privilege arrow
will move towards the Philippines.
Phil Younghusband will be playing in this match
and Angel Locsin will be out to cheer
on her alleged boy toy.
Hmmm...
FIRST HALF:
The
Azkals started strong with the Sri Lankan goal constantly under attack. After
the Sri Lankan goalie Fernando asked for medical attention, the Azkals were
awarded a free kick. The commentators said that the goalie could be stalling to
create semblance for his teammates. A couple of minutes later James Younghusband (twice), Angel Guirado, and Phil Younghusband
attempted to do damage. For the other side, Neil Etheridge stopped the goal once. You can see that the Azkals
are attacking like hell which is a serious improvement from the first match.
The Azkals’ offense is so rabid that most of the action barely touches the Sri
Lankan side.
The
rain also made it an advantage for the Azkals.
I
wonder if Angel Locsin brought an umbrella?
In the
14th minute, the Brave Reds tried to score but Etheridge was there to stop it.
In this game, Rob Gier and Aly Borromeo are doing wonders in
defending.
In the
17th minute, Phil Younghusband’s goal attempt was blocked. In the 18th minute,
Gier stopped the Sri Lankan offense.
And
then in the 19th minute...
Phil
Younghusband passed an awesome shot to Chieffy
Caligdong.
And
then...
CHIEFFY
CALIGDONG GOAL!!!
The aggregate score is now 2-1 in favor of
the Azkals.
Moments
later Manny Ott went down and Rohana Dinesh gets the yellow card.
In the
22nd minute, Phil Younghusband almost scored but the goalie stopped it.
Unfortunately for him, he lost the ball and it set up the Azkals for a corner.
The
midfield is awesome for the Philippines. Stephan
Schrock is doing a helluva job defending and moving the ball towards our
goal. Paul Maulders is playing well
also.
At the
28th minute, Angel Guirado and Phil Younghusband had also tried their best to
score.
At the
29th minute, Sri Lanka is awarded a free kick but they couldn’t properly use
it. Guirado then got the ball and attempted it but it never went in.
At the
31st minute, Guirado recovered the ball and passed it to James Younghusband and
that shot almost went in!
This
is a fantastic game for the Azkals offensively and defensively to the point
that Etheridge has seen little TV time.
At the
32nd, Anton Del Rosario got a yellow
card. Moments later, the Brave Reds bungled two attempts to score. At the 35th
minute, Borromeo foiled a Sri Lankan attempt. As the rain subsides, so did Sri
Lanka’s silence.
Crap.
Stephan Schrock gets a yellow card. Because he had a yellow card in Sri Lanka,
he will definitely miss the match against Kuwait.
Michael Weiss is livid. Schrock has
been a revelation in the tournament and surely the need his services.
In the
38th minute, the Azkals almost scored anew if not the goalie Fernando’s save
against the Aly Borromeo header from a Chieffy Caligdong corner. Moments later,
the Sri Lankan forward missed his attempt to snag a goal. James Younghusband’s
shot was easily saved by Fernando.
In the
42nd minute, the Sri Lankan botched a pass, Phil Younghusband raced to the net.
Fernando went down and when Phil got the ball, he took it and it went in... but
with controversy. The refs wanted to waive it because Phil was allegedly nudged
by the Brave Red defender but looking at the replay, it was a slight nudge and
the goal was officially given to the Azkals much to the Sri Lankans’
chagrin.
PHIL
YOUNGHUSBAND GOAL!!!
By the
way, good for Angel Locsin to sit in the place where the seats are covered!
Bubbles
Paraiso too.
The
aggregate score is now 3 goals to one!
SECOND HALF:
The
rains have stopped and the Rizal Stadium is apparently a trending topic.
At the
47th Phil tried to cross the ball to Guirado but he missed Angel. Meanwhile,
Anton Del Rosario at a great tackle to foil the Reds’ attack.
In the
49th minute, the Sri Lankan defender hugged Phil Younghusband.
MASCULINITY
FAIL!
At the
50th minute Angel Guirado managed to score a goal coming from a great cross
from James Younghusband. Guirado waited for Fernando to commit and when he fell
Guirado struck an impressive shot!
ANGEL GUIRADO
GOAL!!!
At the
55th minute, the Sri Lankan defender vented his frustrations of Stephan Schrock
and that idiotic move got the Azkals a penalty kick.
Phil
Younghusband was tasked to score the goal.
And at
the 56th minute...
PHIL
YOUNGHUSBAND GOAL!!!
At
this point the Brave Reds are too distraught and the frustrations are sinking
in.
Ian Araneta is now all set to come in to
Phil Younghusband and the crowd shows their love for the team’s most popular
striker.
Wait?
What? 23 minutes in the second half, Aly Borromeo gets another yellow card!
Since Aly got a yellow card in the match in Sri Lanka he too will be forced to
sit out just like what Stephan Schrock had.
Chieffy
Caligdong tried for a long ball but Fernando saves it.
At the
69th minute, Guirado was down and Caligdong was down and no ref whistle.
Caligdong was later shipped off the field via a stretcher.
Ian
Araneta tried to score a shot at the 71st minute but to no avail as well. At
the 72nd minute, Araneta tried again to score en route to a corner kick.
Caligdong then raced to the game again which is good news for the Azkals.
Roel Gener will come in while Etheridge
managed to stop two Brave Red goals. Moments later, Gener is officially in for
Caligdong. The crowd is chanting Chieffy’s name as Caligdong goes to Weiss.
At the
81st minute, Araneta had two separate plays where he could score but to no
avail.
Come
to think of it, Nate Burkey, the
only player for the Azkals to score in their match in Sri Lanka did not see
action in this game.
At the
83rd minute, James Younghusband missed a nifty shot.
At the
88th minute, the Sri Lanka defender got a second yellow card in the game which
is an automatic red card and this leaves the Brave Reds with ten players.
As if
that matters...
At
stoppage time, Guirado almost scored. Schrock also had a chance but missed as
well. And then after three minutes of action, the match is over! The
Philippines debuts international play in the newly-furnished Rizal Stadium and
the World Cup dream is alive!
THE
AZKALS ADVANCES TO THE NEXT ROUND AGAINST KUWAIT ON JULY 23!
POST-GAME
NOTES:
Unlike
in their first match, the Azkals were more fluid and their passing is on
target. While again, our shots aren’t that crisp, you cannot fault them for
this helluva match. The transition to defense to attack was spot on. Throughout
the game the Azkals toyed with the Brave Reds and except for a bunch of corners
the Azkals never gave Sri Lanka the chance.
There
are issues that need to be discussed though. Even with the romp, the Azkals
need to shore up their offense. I can count two gimmes that failed to work
because the goal wasn’t timed perfectly. Sri Lanka are babies compared to
Kuwait and in order for us to reach the next level, we have to demonstrate our
dominance against other Middle Eastern squads.
By the
way... Go Azkals Go is a crappy song!
The
other pressing matter they need to address is the suspensions to Aly Borromeo
and Stephan Schrock. Schrock is a diamond in the rough while Borromeo is the
team’s leader. Who will they insert to the starting lineup to cure what they
lack?
Let’s
see what happens.
This
game was fun to watch and hopefully, the other games will still be on our
favor.
Game
over.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment