Azkals reign in the rain

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals shot the lights out and rained Cambodia with goals to eke out an 8-0 win in an AFC Challenge Cup Group E Qualifier match that took a turn for the bizarre, no thanks to the power outage and heavy downpour that struck the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium last night.

Phil Younghusband, seemingly replaying his Golden Boot performance in the 2012 Challenge Cup main tourney, delivered four goals to get things going for the attack-minded Azkals, who picked up their sixth point in a fixture marred by more than an hour of delay. 

Fancied Fil-Spanish striker Javier Patiño also got into the fray and dished out a brace in his debut while highly-touted Stephan Schrock knocked one in and Carli de Murga struck late as the Azkals met their objective of outdoing Turkmenistan’s 7-0 rout of Cambodia last Friday.

With the winning scoreline, the Azkals need merely a draw against Turkmenistan tonight to nail the top position in Group E and a qualifying slot in the main competition in Maldives next year. The Azkals are ahead of Turkmenistan in goal difference, 11 versus 10.

Determined to pull off a high-scoring romp, the Azkals piled up goals after goals to seize a 6-0 lead. At the 65th minute, the rains struck hard and rendered the pitch unplayable, forcing officials to temporarily halt the match for 30 minutes. After a later walkthrough of the flooded field, they called for another half hour of suspension. 

Nature cooperated this time and the referees decided to resume the the last 25 minutes of the match – to the delight of soaked fans in bleachers who stuck it out to see the match to its conclusion.

Prior to the heavy downpour, the match already had its  delay late in the first half, when the stadium plunged into darkness. It took some eight minutes before power was restored and play resumed under less-than-normal lighting. 

The Azkals, who played the last eight minutes with 10 men after Paul Mulders was sent off,  were looking to defeat Cambodia by eight goals so they got out the gate like a pack of attack dogs.

Younghusband made good on de Murga’s cross with a deft first touch that set his right-foot shot from close range that opened scoring at the 25th. He followed this up 10 minutes later with a curling strike off a delivery from Mulders and a header again off Mulders’ cross to make it 3-0.

Patiño, the fancied Fil-Spanish striker, blasted it home off a pass from Younghusband at the 45th, raising his left arm and putting his right hand in his chest in celebration of his first international goal for Phl.  He banged it in a second time at the 57th, outwitting three defenders for a spectacular goal at the top corner under heavy rains.

Schrock fired a long-range rocket to kick off action in the second half then sent a cross that reached Younghusband for an easy tap in for 7-0. Defender de Murga slammed it home off a corner at the 90th for the final score.