Dennis Caraga (right) of the Philippines makes his move against Nepal's Sandip Rai in their international friendly on Tuesday night in Manila. (Andrew James Pamorada/FCF)
Coming off a 2-0 loss to Singapore last Friday, a revamped Tri-Stars squad pulled one back on home soil in a big way.
Behind a sizable crowd at the historical Rizal Memorial Track and Football Stadium, the Philippine national football team — more familiarly known to many as the Azkals — dealt a crushing 4-0 defeat to Nepal in the former’s first home friendly in nearly 14 years.
Brothers Phil and James Younghusband made all but one of the goals for the short-handed and battle-scarred squad under the tutelage of German head coach Hans Michael Weiss, who were missing the services of Angel Guirado (ankle sprain) and were fielding in senior squad members, most notably Emelio “Chieffy” Caligdong (knee) and Ian Araneta (knee) among other players who were both in sub-100 percent condition.
Nevertheless, the Azkals put on a show as well as exposing some of their weaknesses for them to improve on in this prelude to the upcoming Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup in March 2012.
“We have problems sometimes with concentration, (one aspect) where high level teams can punish us,” said the German mentor Weiss.
A glaring example of such loss of concentration was evident during the first 16 minutes of the match, where the nationals came out with great aggressive offense that would find open men waiting deep in the box and would end up in futility.
Araneta, who sprained his knee during their recent 0-2 exhibition match loss against Singapore on Friday, had two of the four golden chances for the Filipinos after being left wide open in enemy territory but would leave his shots wildly missing the target.
But Phil Younghusband opened up the scoring in the 17th minute on a beautiful through pass made by Paul Mulders on a runoff. Then, brother James would double their lead on a thunderous right boot five feet outside the box in the 29th to cap off a 2-nil halftime lead.
British-born head coach Graham Roberts described his Nepali team’s performance as “an absolute disgrace” in giving up the pair of goals in a lackluster 45 minutes of play.
However, the squad monickered as the “Gorkhalis” would show up with a better second half of football but would concede two more goals in the last 45 minutes.
The Younghusband brothers, who lost their mother exactly a month ago due to a sudden illness, connected on a two-man play with James sending a volley to Phil who would strike on a turnaround shot with his right boot for his second goal of the match in the 55th minute.
Finally, with the game all but decided, Matthew Hartmann clinched the game with an exclamation mark in the 89th minute with a loosely guarded strike inside the box to cap off an impressive match.
With most senior players recuperating from their laundry list of injuries or further sharpening their skills in their club teams either in the United Football League or overseas, the young Under-23 callups will take the spotlight on the upcoming Southeast Asian Games next month.
As of writing, the Philippines is ranked 166 as compared to Nepal’s more superior rating at 135 in the recently released FIFA World Rankings.
Notes: The last time that the Philippines hosted an international friendly was in November 27, 1997 at the Rizal Memorial, where they were defeated by Estonia by a count of 1-0. Marko Kristal scored the lone goal in the 46th minute…A total of four yellow cards were meted in this contest, with three of those going to the home side.
