Bahrain win imperils Azkals bid

MANAMA – The side that’s supposed to be struggling got the better of the team that should have been on a roll after a huge performance on the road a few days back.

Bahrain, which has only won once in the first half of Group H action in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers, on Tuesday night eked out a vengeful 2-0 home victory over an Azkals pack that couldn’t sustain the form from their earlier 0-0 away draw with North Korea.

In the process, the Al Ahmar dealt a huge blow on the chances of the Filipinos, who were left stranded at third with seven points through five matches, two off second-running Uzbekistan (nine) and six behind North Korea, which picked up its 13th point at the expense of Yemen, 1-0.

Ismaeel Abdulatif Hasan (53’) and Sayed Adnan (61’) struck with the game-changing goals eight minutes apart versus the Azkals, who in the end, didn’t have the legs anymore after all their traveling in the past 10 days.

“No excuses. We should have played the way we were supposed to but it seemed we couldn’t,” said team manager Dan Palami, whose wards will leave the so-called “Pearl of the Gulf” with a disappointing result. 

To make matters worse, skipper Phil Younghusband was booked late in stoppage time, marking his second yellow card for the tourney, which will lead to an automatic suspension in Phl’s next game against Yemen on Nov. 12 at Rizal Memorial. Younghusband was previously cautioned in the Azkal’s 1-5 home setback to Uzbekistan last month.

The Al Ahmar, meanwhile, not only redeemed themselves from their 0-4 rout at the hands of Uzbekistan last week in the same venue, but also avenged their 2-1 loss to Phl in their first faceoff over in Bulacan last June to improve to six points.

The Azkals set themselves up for the first blood barely a minute in with skipper Phil Younghusband on the receiving end of a fine delivery from Stephan Schrock. But Younghusband, who reverted to his old posting up front after spending the earlier WCQ games in the midfield, couldn’t find the mark.

That turned out to a familiar refrain for the rest of the match as Younghusband guided his header to the left of the post before the end of the half, and in the second half fired a shot that the keeper managed to stop.

Bahrain made some quality passes and took advantage when some Filipino defenders were out of position to release it to Ismaeel who sent it home, putting pressure on the visiting Pinoys to try and catch up.

The Bahrainis again saw an opportunity when they won a free kick off a foul by Misagh Bahadoran. Defender Adan took the task and launched a spectacular kick that sailed over the wall and into the net to double their lead and trigger celebration from the home crowd.

 “It’s very difficult mentally to get back. You could see that Bahrain after the one-nothing, they played better. As for us, we just couldn’t find the energy in our legs to keep pace,” said coach Thomas Dooley.

The game capped a grueling two-match slate on the road for the Pinoy booters, who traveled 30 hours from Manila and other parts of Europe to Bangkok, then Beijing then Pyongyang for the North Korea game last Thursday. From Pyongyang, they returned to Beijing before boarding a plane to Bahrain via Abu Dhabi.

“After the trip that we had to go through the last two games and having to play two difficult games (it had to take its toll),” said Dooley.

“It was a game we should have won, with the chances that we had. But we wasted our chances and they didn’t waste theirs so we got to deal with this result and face the near-impossible task of trying to get nine points in our last three games to give ourselves a chance,” said Palami.