The Philippines men’s national football side wound up preparations for their Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup campaign with a rousing 3-nil shutout of Cambodia in a FIFA-sanctioned friendly on Friday night at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

Daisuke Sato opened the scoring in the 13th minute with a stiff shot from 25 yards out, which flew past Cambodian goalkeeper Sou Yati to put the nationals up one-zip.

Six minutes before the half ended, Manny Ott doubled their lead as the lucky recipient of the rebound off Phil Younghusband’s saved shot to slot in his first international goal for the team.

With the Khmer defense loosening up due to fatigue late in the second half, Younghusband finally found the back of the net in his fourth try in the first minute of injury time to round out the scoring.

Despite the result, Azkals coach Thomas Dooley said that some of their movements on the field was much left to be desired, most notably when they relaxed with a 2-nil lead midway through the second half.

“Overall, I was very happy with the game. Most of the time, we played the way I expected. But there were a couple of minutes in the second half where we were under pressure, when we had more players in the midfield and made it easier for [Cambodia’s] players to go through,” said Dooley.

“But overall, I’m really happy with the way we played. It was a game that I said that we wanted to get some confidence. We created a lot of chances and we scored,” he added.

The Azkals will fly off to Hanoi on Tuesday, four days prior to their opening match in the Suzuki Cup against second-ranked qualifier Lao PDR at Mỹ Đình National Stadium next Saturday at 4:00 p.m.