New system fails to lift Azkals vs Bahrain XI

MANILA, Philippines - Testing their new system, the Philippine Azkals battled higher-ranked Bahrain and yielded a close 1-2 loss in their international friendly Monday night at Bahrain National Stadium in Manama.

The Azkals played the 3-4-3 formation for the first time in an actual game and managed to create scoring opportunities but just fell short in the finishing, allowing world No. 104 Bahrain to keep the victory.

Faouzi Mubarak fired it home off a corner to draw first blood in the 28th and the Bahrainis took barely a minute to double the lead courtesy of Abdula Yasser who blasted a powerful free kick past Roland Muller.

Phil Younghusband and Patrick Reichelt got their chances but couldn’t find the mark before Manny Ott pulled through with a low strike at the 60th minute to fire up the Azkals. 

But the equalizer didn’t come as OJ Porteria and sub Mark Hartmann couldn’t beat the Bahraini keeper in their respective attempts.

“Quality of finishing spelled the difference in this game. Otherwise, we’ve held our own and actually have had more chances,” team manager Dan Palami posted on Twitter during the match.

Coach Thomas Dooley tapped Simone Rota, Juani Guirado and Alvaro Silva to man the backline – a deviation from the team’s usual four-defender formation – with Martin Steuble, Jerry Lucena, Daisuke Sato and Ott in the midfield and Reichelt, Younghusband and Porteria at the tip of the attack.

The friendly capped the Azkals’ weeklong training camp in Bahrain, which kicked off their build-up for the Fifa World Cup qualifiers this year.