Azkals see battle for third as title match

KATHMANDU – For the overachieving Philippine Azkals, it’s now all about ending the AFC Challenge Cup with a bang.

Looking to put the punctuation mark to a fairy tale campaign that’s seen them take a bite of the limelight, the Azkals go into today’s third place match against Palestine as if it were the championship duel itself.

“This match will be like the finals,” said Azkals coach Michael Weiss on the eve of their 2:30 p.m. duel at the Dashrath Stadium.

“I want to take this match very seriously and I think the boys also, they want to get out of this tournament with a bang as overall, we have played very well so far, just a bit unlucky and because of tiredness (didn’t go all the way to the finals),” he added.

A first-time qualifier in the Challenge Cup’s main tourney, the underdog Azkals churned out a series of impressive performances that saw them ambush former champions India (2-0) and Tajikistan (2-1) in the group stage to make a historic semifinal appearance. 

They were a breath away from advancing to the gold medal match when they led Turkmenistan, 1-nil, going into the last 10 minutes of Friday’s semis, only to sputter and yield a bitter 1-2 setback.

“We’ve never expected to come this far and while we would have wanted to be in the finals, I guess it’s something we’ll have to look forward to in the next edition of the Challenge Cup. In the meantime, we concentrate on the game tomorrow (Monday) so we can achieve victory and that would be a big way to end the tournament,” said team manager Dan Palami.

Weiss and Palami gave the players a day off last Saturday “to re-channel their sorrow to other activities.” They resumed training and preparations for the Palestine outing yesterday.

“I think the boys are mature enough to brush this (semis heartbreak) off and like me, they will be ambitious to win this match,” said the German mentor.

The Azkals and Palestine Al-Fursan were groupmates in the Qualifying Group Stages last year, battling to a 0-0 draw. The Palestinians topped Group A with seven points (2-1-0) while the Pinoys finished second with five points (1-2-0) as the two earned berths for the Final Round in this sleepy Himalayan nation.

Weiss said judging from their showing here, Al-Fursan is basically the same as the team they encountered in the 2011 qualifiers.

“They are not so convincing in this tournament but they are a very stubborn side. They also like depth in their squad. But they had this hard match against North Korea (0-2 in the semis), a very tough match,” said Weiss.

“We’ll see how the game will develop. It’s a 50-50 match but I think we have a little plus because we have three fully recovered players hopefully coming back and I will field the strongest possible (combo),” he added.

He’s referring to midfielders Angel Guirado and James Younghusband, who served their one-game suspension in the semis, and defender Jason Sabio who was sidelined by knee injury the last time out. Sabio is expected to return.

The Azkals, however, will not have Fil-British Neil Etheridge at the goal as he had to sit out the match for his red card in the semis. In his place will be Eduard Sacapaño.