Megasportsworld: Difficult Odds Facing the Azkals

Philippines’ love affair with basketball has been going on for decades, the nation stops every time Manny Pacquiao fights, we rejoice when Efren and Django win world titles, we salute Paeng Nepomuceno when he was winning World Cups.

And yet somehow, the qualification of the Philippines to the semifinals of the Suzuki Cup or the ASEAN Football Federation Championship is somehow one of the biggest sports news of the year. Definitely it is the top candidate for upset of the year in Philippine Sports.

Who would have thought that the Philippines would go undefeated in the tournament winning against defending champion, Vietnam and drawing with Singapore and Myanmar?

Before the tournament the Philippines was regarded as the weakest team and for good reason, we never have qualified for the semifinals in the ASEAN Championships and have consistently lost in big fashion against our regional opponents.

During those three games we had the best defense conceding only one goal to Singapore and their naturalized Serbian Striker, Alexander Duric. The 2-0 victory over defending champion Vietnam is considered the biggest upset in tournament history. The goalless draw against Myanmar secured our first ever appearance in the semis.

The win was so unexpected that we didn’t even prepare a venue just in case we qualify. In a somewhat downer it was announced that we will be playing two games in Jakarta, Indonesia instead of a home and away format. The AFF announced that we don’t have any stadium that passed the standards of the association.

The semifinals will pit the Philippine national football team or the Azkals against heavy favorite Indonesia who has romped through the competition during the qualifying stages with a tournament leading 13 goals. The semifinals will basically be the offensive wizardry of the Indonesians against the defense of the Philippines anchored by arguably best goalkeeper in Southeast Asia, Neil Etheridge.

Can the Philippines replicate their victory in Vietnam where they silenced 40,000 screaming fans? Or they will succumb to the pressure? About 80,000 people are expected to witness the game at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in the Indonesian capital city of Jakarta. A lot of our players have never played before such huge crowds.

Megasportsworld (www.megasportsworld.com), the Philippines’ first and only legal sportsbook, has installed Indonesia as heavy favorites with the price of 1.14. It means that a bet of Php 100 will net you Php 114. Their resident football analysts predicts that although the Philippines will put in a tough the two home games, coupled with their inexperience will prove to be too much to overcome and will go down 2-1 in the first game.

But, with the way the Philippine team is proving millions of doubters wrong they may have a lot more fight left in them to make this fixture interesting. If you believe that the Philippines can win, you can bet on them with a price of 8.0 meaning a Php 100 bet will win you Php 800. Call the MSW telebet hotline at 88 66 180 for more info.

Come hell or high water expect the whole nation of 90 million people to pray for the victory of the literal underdog, the Azkals (meaning street dogs), a name fitting a team of fighters who will play to the last minute with their whole heart and might. Whatever happens we will be proud of this team.