Azkals hold Malaysia to scoreless draw in Dooley's debut
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Azkals showed a lot of promise under new coach American Thomas Dooley in another scoreless draw against Malaysia in their international friendly Saturday night at the MPS Stadium in Selayang, Malaysia.
Armed with a new system and buoyed up by new faces and solid mainstays, the Azkals held their own against the Malaysians, who were at full strength, for the third straight time.
The Azkals started with four new faces in goal keeper Patrick Deyto, Fil-Italian Simone Rota, Fil-Swiss Martin Steuble and the returning Ruben Doctora, Jr.
Backed up by a hostile home crowd, the Malaysians pressed their attack early on and nearly scored a goal. But the Azkals got lucky when Mohd Amiridzwan Taj Tajuddin’s header in the 14th minute mark was disallowed due to a hand ball infraction.
Malaysia got three more scoring chances in bunches but the attempts of Mohd Aidil Zafuan Abdul Razak (15’), Safiq Rahim (16’) and Mohd Amri Yahyah (18’) were all denied.
Star striker Phil Younghusband gave the Azkals two scoring chances which never found the back of the net. His shot in the opening moments of the match found the side of the net while the other at the 64th minute went straight to Malaysia’s goal keeper.
A penalty chance came begging for the Azkals in the closing moments when substitute Jason de Jong was tackled by Malaysian defender Mohd Asraruddin Putra Omar in the 90th minute but the referee saw otherwise.
But nonetheless, the new-look Azkals showed encouraging signs with their defensive effort and new offensive sets despite having only less than a month to prepare for the match under Dooley, who only arrived last month.
In a match that expected a lot of fireworks from debuting coaches Dooley and Malaysia’s interim head Datuk Ong Kim Swee, it was the fans who stole the spotlight.
A quarter of wild fans upstaged the debuting coaches when they lit up flares and threw smoke bombs onto the track in what Malaysia’s The Star reported as a sign of protest to their local football governing body.
The smoke prompted the officials to temporarily halt the match in the 32nd minute.
But even that did not stop the Malaysians to challenge the Azkals’ defense.
Patrick Deyto played his first cap with the national team in place of the injured starting goalie Neil Etheridge and delivered a solid debut even as Malaysia also unveiled a new keeper in Mohd Khairulazhan Mohd Khalid. The Azkals also missed veteran Chieffy Caligdong, who had to stay home due to a fractured right foot.
The Phl side will continue their build-up for the AFC Challenge Cup in Maldives slated this May when they battle Azerbaijan for the first time.
Dooley will have his first look at the overseas-based Azkals Jerry Lucena, Roland Muller, Javier Patino and Bundesliga’s Fil-German star Stephan Schrock on Wednesday against the 94th-ranked Azerbaijan.
It will mark the first time that the Phl side will face a European team since yielding a 0-1 loss to Estonia in Manila in 1997.
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