MANILA, Philippines — It wasn’t pretty but Philippine Azkals coach Sven Goran Eriksson would take this rather bland 3-2 escape act over minnows Timor Leste as part of the growing pains moving forward with his new team.
“It’s very important, of course, to have a chance to go through to the semifinals in this Cup. But to do so, I think we have to improve,” said the former England mentor, who’s only on his second game with Phl XI.
Goals from captain Phil Younghusband (27th), Martin Steuble (32nd), and Carly de Murga (68th) provided a 3-0 cushion but the heavily favored Pinoys couldn’t sustain the charge all the way to the finish, allowing Timor to claw back into contention with Nataniel Reis converting a penalty (73rd) and Joao Pedro (75th) finishing a breakaway.
“Second half was not good enough to our standards. I know that we can do much, much better than we did in the second half. But anyhow, we won and that was the most important thing,” said Eriksson.
The Azkals, who played minus injured Luke Woodland and Manny Ott and opted to rest Cardiff City’s Neil Etheridge, had a shaky start and an even shakier finish versus the winless Timorese.
In the fifth minute, Timor-Leste’s Nelson Viegas managed to elude the defense for a 1v1 attack but Azkals keeper Michael Falkesgaard was up to the task and foiled the threat.
As the Pinoys settled down, they conjured a number of chances and hit the mark in the 27th with Stephan Schrock creating and sending a low cross to Younghusband who blasted home the opener and his 52nd international goal overall.
Steuble doubled the lead six minutes later as he fired a rocket from 25 yards off a short free kick by Kevin Ingreso.
De Murga made it 3-0 eight minutes past the hour mark, heading in a pinpoint cross from Ingreso.
It appeared to be a romp from there but the Azkals slacked off on the defensive end, which the Timorese took advantage of to mount a late challenge.
A defensive lapse led to a spot kick awarded Timor and its skipper quickly jumped in to pull the home side one back.
Pedro later beat the offside trap, got past Paul Mulders then rounded Falkesgaard to make it a one-goal contest.