Shattered Philippine Azkals train sights on AFC Cup

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Azkals stayed much longer than usual in their gloomy locker room after falling to unheralded Yemen, 0-1, in Thursday night’s Fifa World Cup qualifiers at Rizal Memorial, sucking it all up and venting their frustrations in private before heading out towards the team bus and greeting sympathetic supporters along the way.

“We’re all disappointed about the loss and everybody should ask himself why this happened and we have another four months to think about it,” said Stephan Schrock, who wore the captain’s armband with Phil Younghusband serving suspension.

Favored to pick up the maximum points, the higher-ranked Azkals failed to cash in on their scoring opportunities while allowing Ahmed Al-Sarori to fire one in and pave the way for Yemen’s first goal and first win in Group H.

The harrowing loss slammed the door on Phl XI’s bid to advance to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers with still two games left in their slate – second-running Uzbekistan in Tashkent and pacesetting North Korea in Manila in March. 

With the WCQ already beyond reach, the Azkals will shift their focus on trying to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup. A third place finish in the group will put the Pinoy booters in the third round of the Asian Cup qualifiers.

“I think (after) that loss, we have to make sure we stick together, regroup again, think about what happened tonight and don’t dwell on it, move forward. We still have a chance for the Asian Cup and we have to really look at that, refocus and we’ve got the quality in the group to turn things around again,” said Iain Ramsay.

Team manager Dan Palami said it will be a “very long three months of reflection” before hitting the field again for the remainder of the WCQ and subsequently the Asian Cup qualifiers.

“I’d like to say sorry to all Filipinos whom we’ve disappointed as well. We hope we can bounce back from this. But our goal is still there – to be playing in the Asian Cup. We have time to reflect on what needs to be done considering all the limitations in training, considering everything that we have to deal with,” said Palami.

Schrock said the challenge is to atone for this performance in the next outings.

“Everybody just has to step up (next time) because this was a very, very disappointing performance from all of us. We have to think about it really properly and hopefully (bounce back) next time,” he said.