Hosts out to defend home turf

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines hasn’t lost an international match at home since November 2006 and Philippine Football Federation (PFF) technical director Aris Caslib said he expects the Azkals to play their hearts out in preserving the unbeaten streak against Kuwait in the second leg of the World Cup Asia qualifiers at the Rizal Memorial Stadium tonight.

“This is the great pride of our national team and they will always fight to protect the home field,” said Caslib, a two-time national coach who has piloted San Beda to eight consecutive NCAA seniors and 10 straight NCAA juniors championships. “The entire nation must stand together for this.”

Studying the possible scenarios in the rematch, Caslib broke down Kuwait’s offense and said he’s confident the Azkals are ready to counter it. “Kuwait always attacks from the flanks,” he noted. “If they can’t deliver the ball to the flanks or can’t cross, they’ll just withdraw the ball behind the back four and look for the next option. The back four players, especially the central defenders, usually look for the midfield players for the combination plays – the wall passes and third man running – and locate the strikers. If the midfield players aren’t available, the central defenders will just fire long balls to Yousef Nasser in front as he is a big striker.”

Caslib said coaches who took the recently-concluded Asian Football Confederation B-license course at the Don Bosco Boys Home in Liloan, Cebu, used the Azkals’ match against Kuwait as a case study and came up with an analysis of how to win the rematch.

Caslib said the coaches divided their analysis into defense, offense and a general strategy of how to beat Kuwait.

“In defense, the consensus was we must defend in the middle third, we must improve defending crosses, we must be patient in going against 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 situations, we must control the midfield line and we must play our set piece defense harder,” said Caslib. “In offense, our midfield and back four must support Phil Younghusband, Chieffy Caligdong, James Younghusband and Angel Guirado. We must use combination plays in the flanks to create opportunities to score. We must execute our set piece by maximizing our headers and we must substitute smartly. The big difference is we have a new team list. The return of Aly (Borromeo) and Stephan (Shrock) gives us the strength in front of Neil (Etheridge) and a very dynamic midfield to link with attacking players and to go down in helping the back four.”

Caslib said while it’s an uphill climb to overtake Kuwait’s 3-0 lead, he’s not giving up hope. “The coaches agreed that Kuwait can be beaten,” he continued. “We must organize our back four well in addressing crosses and long balls from their back line. The back four must understand their individual responsibilities. There must be cooperation between the goalkeeper and the back four and the back four and the midfield line. We must improve our set piece defending. We must consider defending in other areas instead of staying very low. We can press Kuwait but we must know when to do it. We must involve more players in offense particularly in the transition from defense. Our set piece is dangerous so it must be maximized.”

Caslib said in the first match, the Azkals had golden opportunities to score, particularly in the first 15 minutes. Caligdong executed a corner kick that was headed by Guirado with Jason Sabio on the rebound. Phil Younghusband had a breakaway and his shot was deflected by the Kuwait goalkeeper. Another clear attempt was Phil Younghusband’s shot that hit the cross bar from outside the box.

“The opportunities in the first half showed that Kuwait starts slow which is something we can exploit in the rematch,” said Caslib. “But we must remember that when we lose opportunities, we can’t lose our concentration on defense. That was what happened in Kuwait’s first goal. It came almost immediately after we lost a clear scoring chance. Opponents usually take the initiative after a missed shot and Kuwait did it against us.”

Caslib said Kuwait’s three goals were heartbreakers for the Azkals. The first came in the 16th minute, the second in the 68th and the third in the 84th. “The first goal was scored by Yousef with a header when the Kuwait ring winger beat our two defenders and was able to cross,” related Caslib.