Palestine halts Azkals trip to ’15 Asian Cup

MALE’ – Though it was no gold, it was golden, nonetheless.

The Philippine Azkals settled for the silver medal in the AFC Challenge Cup as they suffered a 0-1 setback to Palestine in a sad ending to their dream run here Friday.

A free kick given up near the top of the box at the 58th minute spelled the doom for the history-chasing Azkals, who themselves couldn’t cash in on the few scoring opportunities they got from the sturdy defense of Palestine.

Ashraf Alfawagha, the tourney’s top scorer, took the freekick and fired a sublime shot beyond Roland Muller’s reach, leaving the Azkals on a merry chase the rest of the way.

“It was a tough game, the boys played hard and played good so I’m proud of every one of them,” said Azkals coach Thomas Dooley.

The Azkals sought to write history by winning the country’s first Asia-wide football plum since 1913 and at the same time qualifying for the 16-nation Asian Cup next year with the continent’s heavyweights.

They came a win away from achieving another milestone if not for the stumble in the end.

Still, the finish was the best in over 100 years.

“We’ve had a good tournament, we just didn’t get the result we were all hoping for,” said Dooley.

Tall and strong Palestine dominated possession and repeatedly threatened the Phl defense, which initially stood firm with Muller at the ramparts.

The Azkals had a good chance to draw first blood in the 41st when Stephan Schrock delivered a defense-splitting pass to Phil Younghusband, who found only the Palestine keeper in front of him but misfired his shot.

Palestine made the most out of its chance 13 minutes after restart with Alfawagha delivering his fourth goal of the meet to the delight of the Maldivian crowd who were cheering the Middle Eastern team on.

“We should have finished, we should have converted our chances when it was presented,” said team manager Dan Palami. “These are the kinds of games where you’ll only be given few opportunities to score so you really have to finish it. And because we couldn’t convert, we failed to win the championship.”

Dooley admitted they were outplayed by the champions.

“You could see Palestine played better; they were stronger, more dangerous up front, their defense didn’t concede a goal the whole tournament, I mean it’s something phenomenal,” he said.

“You could see the size they have in the back, their goalkeeper was a great goalkeeper, they have some great players in midfield and incredible, strong forwards so the whole team was a tight match for us,” he added.

Dooley sees a silver lining in this episode.

“One part of me is happy and another is obviously not. My task was to win the Challenge Cup and I didn’t do that so that’s a negative.

“On the other hand, I was thinking of trying to build something with the team and I think we did a pretty good job so far until the final and we just lost the final so I think this team has a bright future and if we continue to work hard and find those young players, then I think we’ll have a good future so on that part, I’m happy,” Dooley said.