Azkals halt Maldives, make finals, history

Match on Friday (National Stadium)

9 p.m. – Palestine vs Philippines (12 a.m. in Manila)

MALE – The Philippine Azkals wrote another chapter in their history-chasing drive by advancing to the finals of the AFC Challenge Cup, most probably the greatest feat for Phl football in the last 100 years.

They had to go through 120 grueling minutes of white-knuckled showdown with a relentless Maldives side that’s fired up by over 8,000 supporters, though, and proved up to the task by eking out a pulsating a 3-2 victory in extra time Tuesday night.

“Puso lang talaga (It was really all heart),” said team manager Dan Palami. “That’s the only thing that kept them going throughout the tough match.”

To say that the semifinal match was tough would be an understatement.

The Azkals took command early but somehow faded in the late stages of the second half as the Maldivians, fueled by the crowd, pressed on and threatened to alter the script the Filipinos were making.

The Philippine side drew a lot of heroes – from sub Chris Greatwich, who scored the marginal goal at the 104th minute, and goal-scorers Phil Younghusband (19th) and Jerry Lucena (38th), to Daisuke Sato who helped set up the second goal, to Amani Aguinaldo who hounded Maldives star Ali Ashfaq, to Roland Muller who saved a superb penalty save for a second straight game.

“This team’s special. Just the team spirit we have, I think it probably got us more results than anything,” said captain Rob Gier. 

 â€œIt’s a great place to be around and we fight all the time for each other every second, every minute of the game and that’s what we really needed (in the Maldives game). When the chips were down, the boys really needed to dig in and work for each other and we’ve done that,” he added.

One step closer to the ultimate prize, the Azkals seek to author a perfect ending to this campaign by winning the Challenge Cup crown and booking an unprecedented stint in next year’s AFC Asian Cup with another victory tomorrow night against Palestine.

The Palestinians nipped Afghanistan, 2-0, to advance.

“We want to play at the next level, that is not a secret. We came over here to win the Challenge Cup. We want to play at the next level which is the Asian Cup so we want to play against those big guys, not to win something, but to play with them and that is our biggest goal,” said coach Thomas Dooley.

“When you play and believe in it you will be successful so that’s why we are going step-by-step. And right now the biggest thing we can do is write a new history in the next game so we want to prepare the team to write history,” he added.

The Azkals actually dominated the Maldivians in the early goings, getting some neat scoring chances and connecting via Phil Younghusband’s strike at the 19th minute.

That silenced the predominantly pro-Maldives crowd at the National Stadium but they came back to life in the 36th when Umair lobbed it home over Muller.

The Filipinos took just two minutes to respond with the go-ahead with Lucena firing his first international goal from close range.

Muller foiled a penalty kick at the 53rd to preserve the lead but Maldives couldn’t be denied the equalizer at the 66th via Abdulla Asadulla’s corner kick.

It ended up tied after hard-fought 90 minutes and then the Azkals swayed the game to their favor by switching to a 4-4-2 formation and eventually hitting the game-winner.

“It’s one of the most thrilling games we’ve ever been. I’d like to congratulate the players for digging deep because they’re really tired already and exerted all their efforts in preserving the lead and getting the win,” said Palami.

Notes: Just before the referee whistled to signal the start of first half of extra period, an emotional Rob Gier gathered his teammates in a circle. “I told them this was not whete it ended. It’s a great achievement but we wanna be going to Australia (Asian Cup). I didn’t leave my five-day baby to come here and you guys didn’t spend the last three weeks away from home for it to end here. That’s what I wanted to drive in and the kind of energy coming off the guys after that was brilliant,” he said...It was an extra challenge for Filipino OFWs here to get tickets to the match. “Tinatago nila sa amin ang tickets (They’re hoarding the tickets from us,” they said. They hope it would be a lot better for ticket selling to the Phl-Palestine finale....An unruly fan hurled bottled water on the Pinoy gallery after the game but fortunately, police stepped in for protection...There were some Maldivian fans who stayed in the exits to see off the victorious Azkals as well, clapping as the visiting booters headed to their bus. A group even called Stephan Schrock and gave him a high five.