Azkals looking at best chance to make history in Thailand By ROY MOORE l GMA NEWS l December 9, 2014 The Philippine national football team is looking to make history by reaching its first ever Suzuki Cup final. With a score draw or a win over Thailand, the Azkals will knock the War Elephants out on their own turf, but it’s a big task ahead of them. Not only will the Philippines need a positive result in the country where they lost 3-0 just last month, but they will have to do it in front of a raucous crowd that will be in the biggest, loudest, environment they’ve ever faced. And to do this, the Azkals will need to score their first Suzuki Cup semifinal goal after going scoreless in five games. The last time Thailand failed to score in any Suzuki Cup game was in the 2010 group stage, in a goalless draw with Malaysia. In 2010, Thailand failed to get out of the group, the only time since 2004 they didn’t reach the final. Thailand isn’t at full strength right now. With a youthful team, an unsettled backline themselves, and a new head coach in legendary Thai striker Kiatisuk Senamuang, the War Elephants are a team in transition. With the scores still level and with no away goal for Thailand, this is the best chance the Philippines have had to defeat Thailand since the first ever match between the two in 1971. The Azkals are still underdogs, but they have a fighting chance. Missing strikers Adisak Kraisorn was sent off in the first leg and only entered the game to replace main striker Kirati Keawsombut, who was injured by Martin Steuble. The former is suspended, the latter is doubtful. This leaves Thailand with two natural strikers, Sompong Soleb and Chainarong Tathong, who have one goal in 21 international appearances between them. In fortuitous circumstances for the Philippines, the Thai attack has been blunted. Instead, the threat will come from their attacking midfielders, Charyl Chappuis and Chanathip Songkrasin. Chanathip is an exciting young prospect who has experience in the 2012 Suzuki Cup. Charyl Chappuis is a new addition, with three goals in five games for Thailand. Like many of the Azkals, he grew up in Europe and returned to his mother’s country to ply his trade in the domestic league. Thailand will still be very dangerous; even in this transitionary period they’re probably favorites to win the whole competition, along with Vietnam. But if the Azkals can contain the creative midfielders, they could give themselves a really good chance. With two natural strikers left in the Thai squad, that’s still double the number the Philippines has. Phil Younghusband remains the only natural striker for the Azkals, yet he’s still being played as an attacking midfielder. Against weaker teams, this decoy has worked on occasion. Mark Hartmann has seven international goals this year, while the Philippines have seven different scorers for their nine goals in this Suzuki Cup so far. But against bigger teams, it hasn’t worked. Without a quality finisher, Vietnam deservedly won 3-1 in the group while the Azkals averaged a shot on target every half hour against Thailand. This was the fifth straight time that the Philippines failed to score in a Suzuki Cup semi final, that’s 450 minutes of football. There were glimpses of quality against Thailand, with some neat passing, but the best chance for the Azkals came when Daisuke Sato played a through ball for Phil Younghusband. Racing toward goal, it took two defenders to just about stop him. If the Azkals go back to playing Younghusband as the out and out striker, they will have their best chance of ending that goal drought. A little respect A fair amount has been shared on social media about how disrespectful some fans have been. Thai fans believe Amani Aguinaldo to be the antagonist in Adisak’s sending off, and we can expect a very hostile atmosphere for the young defender. When you watch the replay of the incident, though, you have to say to a degree they’re right. Off the ball, Amani instigates the incident as he approaches Adisak, shoves him, and puts his head towards the striker. Adisak reacts angrily, swinging his arm at the defender and hits his face. On first viewing, and on the next few viewings, it looks like Amani pushes his head at Adisak and goes down. And that’s what the Thais saw. It took about 10 times watching the replay to see the arm Adisak threw. On the streets Adisak would be defending himself against an aggressor, but this wasn’t the streets, it was a football game. And by the letter of the law Adisak deserved his red card, but Amani was still very lucky to escape punishment. Whether he just lost his head in the moment or felt aggrieved at previous incidents and took his chance at revenge, the spotlight is now on Amani Aguinaldo in front of a sold out Thai crowd. We certainly hope he passes the biggest test of his career. None of that justifies a few of the choice words Thais have thrown his way, and the Philippines’ way in general. But neither does that justify the derogatory response of some Pinoy fans. Football fans make fun of each other, will boast of their team’s success to each other, they will banter back and forth. But when attacks get personal and racist, you stop being a football fan and you start being a hooligan. Certainly the Thai fans who went too far deserve to be condemned. But there is no justification for calling Thais animals in response, as some Pinoy fans have done. Surrounded by more than 40,000 Thai fans, I’m worried about the safety of Filipino fans if the Thais felt offended by a few idiots back in the Philippines. The majority of fans are respectful and fall well within the bounds of the usual football banter. But there is a very vocal minority who take it too far and give us all a bad name. Remember how some Pinoys took to social media to blast Iran after losing the final of the FIBA Asian Championship? Or in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, how some Pinoy fans called Senegal horrendous insults? I don’t want Philippine football to take on a similar face to the rest of the world. Learning from Thailand, on and off pitch Here’s the relevance of all this, in the long-run. When Thais complained about the decrepit state of the toilets or having horns confiscated by overzealous security at Rizal Memorial Stadium, they were right. The fan who called the Philippines poor , because of the state of the stadium over-reached. But we can say in comparison to other countries in Southeast Asia Rizal Memorial Stadium is a poor stadium. Whatever the result in this game, we can learn from Thailand on the field. But this match represents more than a single game, and that’s why we can learn so much more off the pitch. The Azkals can make history by getting past Thailand and reaching the final of the Suzuki Cup for the first time. But we can also build history by seeing the big picture and everything we can learn from Thailand in the long-run. This gap in infrastructure and grassroots is the reason we go in as underdogs in this game and why we’ll likely be underdogs against the best of Southeast Asia for the next decade. The Philippine National team has caught up to the rest of Southeast Asia; it’s time we started to bring the rest of Philippine football up to the same standard. And that’s the long-term lesson from this semifinal. admin*ping
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 15:54:57 +0000
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