Must win for Pinoy booters vs Cambodia

BACOLOD — Getting extra boost from the Brunei side, the Philippines tries to take care of its own end of the business when it takes on Cambodia in a veritable do-or-die match Saturday in the Asean Football Championship’s final qualifying at the Panaad Sports Complex pitch here.

A win by the RP side will be its second straight, jacking its points total to six and giving it second place should Brunei lose to leader Laos in Saturday’s nightcap of the five-team Asean Football Federation event.

"It’s all up to us," said national coach Aris Caslib.

"Our fate is in our hands."

An RP loss will greatly dampen its chances of finishing among the top two here and advancing to the tournament proper of the meet, formerly known as the Tiger Cup, in January.

Unwittingly giving the Filipinos a big boost was Brunei, which held fancied Cambodia to a 1-1 draw last Thursday following Laos’ equally narrow 3-2 win over gritty Timor Leste.

The Cambodia-Brunei tie meant the hosts can even finish as high as first in the tournament if they beat the Cambodians and then Brunei on Monday and Laos loses to Brunei.

The ramifications are not lost on Caslib and his charges, although they prefer to concentrate on Cambodia first.

"It’s a must-win game for both of us, so I expect them to throw everything at us. I know we’ll be doing the same to them," said Caslib.

A thorough scouting report on the team that includes remnants of Cambodia’s Under-23 side, which the Philippines handily beat, 4-2, in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, helps.

"Cambodia always plays a 3-5-2 offensive formation and sometimes leaves four, as many as five guys, behind defensively. Definitely, three are there," noted Caslib.

"That will expose their sides and give our wingbacks more spaces to operate."

For sure, Caslib will once again utilize afour-forward combination that helped lead to a 7-0 blanking of Timor Leste last Tuesday. He politely refused to divulge other details, however.

Center-midfielder Jeffrey Liman will have to sit out the Cambodia game for incurring a second yellow card against the Timorese, but Caslib said the likes of

Henry Brauner, Alvin Ocampo and Chris Greatwich can compensate for the absence of the San Beda College star.

Scott O’Donnell, the temperamental Australian coach of Cambodia, has the same handicap after Om Thavrak was issued a red card - and an automatic one-game suspension -in the course of the Brunei game.

Unlike the Timorese, the Cambodians have enough height and heft to go physical, an unveiled threat by a team official that is welcomed by RP skipper Alexander ‘Ali’ Borromeo.

"That’s the way they play it abroad, to go hard on every ball, and I’m sure the other (Fil-foreign) guys in our teams will welcome it," said the US-raised goalie-turned striker-turned defender.

"If they do go physical, it will only pump us up, make us play harder.

"So, I say, ŒBring it on.’"