Azkals score lopsided win, advance to Peace Cup Finals

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals kept their Peace Cup title retention bid alive and kicking following a 5-1 demolition job of the visiting Chinese Taipei on Thursday night at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

The Azkals rained goals on the hapless Chinese Taipei in the rain-halted match to book a Finals date with Southeast Asian rival Myanmar, which dealt AFC Asian Cup-bound Palestine, 4-1, in the other match.

Coming off a historic runner-up stint in the AFC Challenge Cup, the Azkals continue to improve tactically under former US captain Thomas Dooley.

Rob Gier put the Azkals on the scoreboard following blown chances by Manny Ott. Gier scored his first international goal for the Azkals with a sneaky header in the 25th minute.

Misagh Bahadoran doubled the lead several minutes later as the Azkals went to the break with a commanding 2-0 lead.

The game was halted in the 57th minute as the heavy downpour flooded Rizal Memorial's artificial turf.

After a 30-minute break, the rain stopped and the match resumed with the Azkals picking up from where they left off.

Chinese Taipei's Chen Yi Wei slid to try to clear Phil Younghusband's shot but, fortunately for the Azkals, the ball went in and was counted as an own goal to make the score, 3-0.

Substitute Mark Hartmann fired two goals that sandwiched a lone Chinese Taipei score courtesy of Yen Ho-Shen to wrap up the massive victory.