Limpag: Azkals show their grit

WAS ready to write off the Philippine team�s campaign in the Suzuki Cup when, as recently as two months ago, I learned the team still had no coach.


The funds mess that the PFF has found itself in, which has resulted to the CFA filing a case of falsification of public documents against the PFF president, also made me wonder if the morale of the RP team has been affected.

I shouldn�t have doubted the squad, thanks to Dan Palami and Simon McMenemy.

While the PFF president was making palami with the perks of his office, Palami, the team manager who�s bankrolling the team, had the Azkals train seriously for the Suzuki Cup qualifiers, not that rushed two-week training the team usually has.


They went to Leyte and when they got McMenemy, had a series of friendlies with Taiwanese teams.


The team�s fighting attitude, so different from the let�s-not-lose-by-much of the past, showed in their 2-2 draw against Laos.

After getting down 2-0, this team, unlike those of yesteryears, fought back.

I saw a clip of that game in YouTube and it makes you proud to be a Pinoy football fan.

After Phil Younghusband (Yep, it�s a weird name but there are Butts and a Buffon in the World Cup) equalized with a penalty in the 74th minute, you could clearly hear one of the Fil-Brits scream:

�WE NEED ONE MORE GUYS!!!�

They got it in the 94th minute. Yep, four minutes past full time.

Showing they were ready to take a gamble, Neil Etheridge, the goalkeeper, took the free kick, just before the halfcourt line.

Etheridge, the former England U16 keeper who�s riding the bench for Fulham FC in the Premier League, connected with James Younghusband, who headed past the Laos keeper for the equalizer.

After that game, the Philippines held Cambodia, 0-0, while Laos beat Timor Leste, 6-1, to take the first qualifier�s spot.

McMenemy credited the team spirit and their hard work for the past 10 months, which was made possible under Palami.

He told affsuzukicup.com. �When I arrived in the Philippines in August, the team�s preparations for the Suzuki Cup were already well under way� what I found was a group of good players who play together but not necessarily for each other. We had to work hard to get the team to gel�But the effort that they put in during the last few days was fantastic and they fully deserved to advance in the competition.�


The last time the Azkals advanced, they got hammered in the finals, losing to Thailand, 4-0, with captain Ali Borromeo getting injured. They also got hammered by Malaysia, 4-0, and a clip of that match was shown on CNN after a striker scored a wonderful bicycle shot.

But in their last game, when they had nothing to gain, they thwarted Myanmar�s dream of a semifinal spot by holding them to a 0-0 draw.

This early, I am upbeat of the RP team�s chances, even if it is in Group A with Vietnam, Singapore and Myanmar. A semifinal spot is unlikely but not impossible.

And I also like McMenemy�s attitude.

�Once we get to the final rounds, every game will be tough. But the tougher the opponents, the more I think the boys can rise to the occasion.�
Now that�s the Azkal spirit.


P.S. What the team achieved in Laos makes you wonder what the boys�or RP football�could achieve had we had a president who is really concerned about the sport, doesn�t it? (Why, you think I could resist letting this one go?)

(www.football.cebunetwork.com)

Sun Star Cebu