PHILIP YOUNGHUSBAND DOWN WITH FLU BUT WILL PLAY
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 19 Dec 2010
Philip Younghusband, one of the Fil-British brothers on the Philippine team that will face Indonesia at 8:00 p.m. Sunday at the Bung Karno Stadium before a mammoth crowd of Indon fans is down with the flu but will play in the crucial second leg of the semi final showdown with Indonesia which hasn?t lost a game in the 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup up to now.
The Jakarta Post reported that the young star who scored a goal in the Philippines 2-0 win over defending champions Vietnam in Hanaoi said he vowed to score goals against Indonesia just like he did against Vietnam alongside Chris Greatwich who, if the Philippines wins and enters the finals will be in contention for ?The Golden Boot? which is awarded to the player who scores the most number of goals in the tournament.
Philip was quoted as saying that the hot and humid weather in Jakarta had made it difficult for most of the Filipino players as some of them they were born and live in Europe where the weather is cold if not much cooler. The Younghusbands have now settled down in Manila and have set up a football academy.
However, Younghusband said the Philippines has an advantage as there were no injuries bothering the players unlike the Indonesian squad where a couple of players including skipper Firman Utina and forward Irfan Bachdim had nagging injuries.
Smart Sports Pato Gregorio who flew to Jakarta along with the head of Smart Communications Doy Vea to help lift the team?s spirits after a generous P1 million contribution from businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan for the team's training expenses, informed the Inquirer that as early as 3:00 p.m. Indonesian fans were lining up at the entrances to the stadium. ABS-CBN reporter TJ Manotoc said several Filipinos were also gathering at the hotel lobby, ready to cheer the Philippine team against an expected 70,000 Indonesian fans.
On the eve of the second leg match angry fans rioted at the Bung Karno sports complex after ticket sales were delayed. Event organizers said the number of tickets offered for Sunday?s match was reduced after they were overwhelmed by ticket sales for the first match last Thursday. Organizing committee chairman Joyo Driyono told the Jakarta Post that tickets for Sunday?s match could not be sold on Saturday morning since ticket reconciliation for the last match had lasted until 11:00 p.m. on Friday. He noted that reconciliation would have been faster if the ticketing system was online or connected by a local area network.
Driyono said ?this is what forced us not to sell tickets on Saturday. We didn?t want to oversell tickets.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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