PHILIPPINE AZKALS STUN YEMEN 2-0 TO JOIN NORTH KOREA AT THE TOP OF THE STANDINGS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 17 Jun 2015
The Philippine Azkals stunned fancied Yemen 2-0 to follow up on their spectacular 2-1 victory over Bahrain in their opening match to join North Korea at the top of the standings with 6 points on two wins with no losses.
After losing to the powerful North Koreans 1-0 in their opening game, the Yemenis were expected to create problems for the Azkals but it never materialized as the Philippine squad controlled possession, had more chances and corner kicks and generally defended well with some resolute tackling and heady passing when the Yemenis pressed, confident that in goalkeeper Neil Etheridge they had a superb last line of defense.
Misagh Bahadoran who scored the first goal against Bahrain duplicated that feat with even greater aplomb in the 52 second mark when he worked a deft one-two passing move with Javier atino, swiveled onto his left foot and sent the ball crashing into the net beyond the Yemen goalkeeper Mohammed Ebrahim with a terrific strike.
The Filipinos kept pressing for a second goal as the defense held firm in the face of occasional counter attacks by Yemen and were rewarded in the 74th minute when Iain Ramsay scored his maiden international goal for his country off another nifty pass by Patino.
The Azkals had a few more chances to add to the score-line but poor finishing robbed us of the chance even as we failed to convert on a score of corners.
The twin victories have signaled a magical if unexpected start to the Philippines campaign in the Fifa World Cup/AFC Asian Cup qualification on Tuesday night before a good crowd of noisy Yemeni supporters who were more than matched by the Filipinos in the crowd of over 5,000 who live and work in Doha, Qatar where the match was played at the Sports Club Stadium and telecast ?live? on ABS-CBN Sports beginning at 11:45 p.m.
With their win over Bahrain, the Azkals confidence was boosted and although they had the better of Yemen in the first half earning no less than 8 corners both teams went into their dugouts with the score at 0-0.
The Azkals appeared to be inspired by whatever coach Thomas Dooley told them at halftime and soon began to threaten the Yemeni goal before Bahadoran whose turn of speed left his defender behind scored with the assistance of the accurate passes of Patino, the talented Fil-Spanish striker.
An obviously tired Bahadoran was wisely substituted by coach Dooley at the 68 minute mark with Patrick Reichelt replacing him and indicating that Dooley wanted to keep attacking and not park the bus and defend the two goal cushion which contributed to making it an attractive game.
Reichelt missed a golden opportunity to add a third goal but he failed to find the net with his attempt.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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