No-nonsense British coach Desmond Bulpin is running the national football team like it should be – without harboring sacred cows or secretly guarding a political agenda.
Bulpin took over from Jose Caslib as Philippine coach late last year and brought the squad to play a pair of exhibitions at the Port Friendship Cup in Kaoshiung, Taiwan, last month. The Philippines played a scoreless tie with a Taiwanese club, beefed up by national mainstays, in the opener and lost a 3-1 decision to another hometown squad in the second match.
“As all coaches worth their mettle, Des wants a free hand,” said a source who declined to be identified. “The team is happy with him. All work, no politics. He even benched unfit good players, including Fil-foreigners, in Taiwan. He may not be the best coach out there but he’s much better than anyone locally.”
The first game was a cliffhanger and the Philippines nearly scored an upset over the hosts. The Filipinos, eager to show their stuff after suffering a series of humiliating downgrades in the FIFA world ratings, came out strong in the first 20 minutes with several clear-cut chances.
Yanti Bersales and Ian Araneta conspired to almost boot in the icebreaker with a cross from Emelio Caligdong. The three Philippine Air Force stalwarts also got together to almost net in a marker from a corner kick. Taiwan had its own close call with a striker eluding both his defender and goalkeeper but skipper Aly Borromeo came through with a spectacular sliding save.
“The Philippines pressed pretty much the whole game and made the Taiwanese midfield panic and make mistakes,” said the source. “We were just unlucky with our finishing and composure in front of the goal. Still more work and fitness to be done.
“Our midfield was quite young (Jason de Jong and Manuel Ott, 17) and inexperienced but played with heart and confidence. Our backline was solid as usual, winning all the head balls and not letting anything through. Taiwan dominated for 20 minutes during the second half attacking our right side, putting in cross after cross but the defense was solid. We had a couple of more chances from the 80th to 90th minute - a free kick by Borromeo that was acrobatically saved by the Taiwanese keeper and a wide open header by Bersales that flew just past the post.”
The source added, “We should’ve won the game, 4-1. We dominated and had really good chances. We pressed and put pressure the whole time. If the team was fitter, we would have pulled away. Everyone did well.”
Bulpin delivered a strong message to the team that he won’t tolerate backsliders. Before the tournament got underway, he had the players do exercises in the hotel pool despite the cold weather. One of the players said it was like jumping into Lake Tahoe. Bulpin, a sticker for discipline, made no bones about stretching the players to their limit.
* * *
In the second game, the short-handed Philippine team yielded a 3-1 decision.
The squad was made up mostly of military players from the Army and Air Force. Bersales, 37, was the oldest. Others in the squad included Araneta, 27, Borromeo, 26, Anton del Rosario, 28, Caligdong, 27, San Beda’s Roxy Dorlax, 22, FEU’s Jovanie Simprom, Ott, Chris Greatwich, 26, Chad Gould, 27, Rob Grier, 30 and De Jong. Ott is Filipino-German and De Jong, Filipino-Dutch while Greatwich, Gould and Grier are Filipino-British.
No doubt, the Philippine lineup could’ve been a lot deeper if Filipino-British recruits Neil Etheridge, Simon Greatwich and the Younghusband brothers – Phil and James, saw action.
Phil Younghusband, 22, is pursuing a career in show business and has put his football career on hold. The former Chelsea junior striker made his Philippine team debut at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in Bacolod and also played at the Champions Cup in Iloilo and the Asian under-21 competitions in Brunei.
Bulpin isn’t the first British coach recruited for the Philippines. In 1962-63, Alan Rogers and Brian Birch were hired to call the shots for the national team. And in 1963, Graham Adams and Denny McLennan also had their turn.
Bulpin is rich with football coaching experience dating back to 25 years. He was formerly the Uzbekistan national coach. Bulpin also had coaching stints with the Queens Park Rangers, Leicester, Stockport and Tottenham.
* * *
The Philippines was ranked an all-time low of 195 in the FIFA standings in 2006. This month, the FIFA ratings pegged the Philippines at 167, down from 160 in 2008. Because of lack of preparation, vision, manpower and resources, the Philippines did not bother to join the qualifiers for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. It also did not enter the 2007 Asian Cup and failed to qualify for the ASEAN Football Cup in 2008 and the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup in 2008 and 2010.
Bulpin’s progress with the national team will be measured during the ASEAN Football or Suzuki Cup qualifiers on Oct. 16-24. The Philippines will try to book one of two tickets for the tournament proper by surviving the qualifiers involving Laos, Brunei, Cambodia and East Timor. The two qualifiers will join Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, Malaysia and Vietnam in the tournament proper co-hosted by Vietnam and Indonesia on Dec. 1-29.
There are no plans to send a Philippine football team to Guangzhou for the Asian Games this November. The football event is open to all applicants without qualification. Each team is limited to enlist players who are under 23 with three overaged exceptions.
Bulpin’s sponsors Dan Palami and Henry Tsai, two sports-loving businessmen, are giving the Briton a free hand to manage the team. The benefactors are footing the bill for Bulpin without Philippine Football Federation assistance and that’s why they’re insisting on no interference whatsoever from the local governing body, insulating the coach from politics to do his thing.