Philippine booters take draw in stride

MANILA, Philippines — New-look Philippine men’s football team is staying the course despite blowing a “winnable” game in their Asean Championship opener at home and settling for a 1-1 draw with Myanmar.

“I think it was a game that we really had to win but it is how it is. Now we have to go to Laos and win this game there,” said coach Albert Capellas, making clear their objective in their second assignment in the biennial meet known as Mitsubishi Electric Cup tomorrow in Laos.

“There is always the next game,” he emphasized ahead of the duel with Laos, which is on a high after battling powerhouse Indonesia to a 3-3 tie on hostile grounds in Surakarta.

The Pinoy booters left for Vientiane yesterday with lessons learned from Thursday night’s home match backed by BPI MS Insurance, the Philippine representative of Asean United FC’s regional partner MSIG Asia.

Displaying their new attack-oriented style in front of 1,585 supporters at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, the Filipinos controlled possession at 61 percent and conjured 15 more attempts than Myanmar with 22 shots, including eight on-target.

However, such ball dominance didn’t translate to goals.

Worse, the Filipinos had to play catchup after giving up a free kick to Maung Maung Lwin in the 25th minute and needed Bjorn Kristensen’s penalty kick in the 72nd to draw level and salvage the point.

“We had so many chances. We have to finish in a much better way. We should have killed the game in the first half. But in football, there are many possibilities. We didn’t take ours and we gave hope to the opponent. I think this is part of our journey, of the process, ” defender Christian Rontini rued.

“We're moving forward. We have another big game in three days in Laos and it’s another opportunity for us to step up, to improve ourselves because we are here only to improve and to reach the highest level for the national team as much as we can.”