PHL Azkals defeats Mongolia for AFC Challenge Cup Qualifier

The Philippine Azkals played their first home at the packed Panaad Stadium in Bacolod against the Blue Wolves from Mongolia to qualify for the AFC Challenge Cup. A few minutes prior to kick-off, Azkals' Coach Hans Michael Weiss announced his official team line up for the game. It pretty much kept everybody guessing about it though. Nonetheless, they are very much expected to win this all important qualifying match.

In the first half, the Azkals began pressing on their opponents and launched their attack. The Blue Wolves went on D the entire 45 minutes of the half. Despite Mongolia's hard nosed defense, Chieffy Caligdong finally scored a goal for the Azkals barely a couple of minutes before the end of the first half. The crowd erupted upon Caligdong's goal as the Mongolians had their heads scratching.



Mongolia did the same type of defensive plays in the second half. The Azkals' Ian Araneta had a lot of opportunities to score but none of them went in. Nobody can blame his frustration on the latter. Phil Younghusband almost scored their second goal if it wasn't for the handball violation call that prompted the officials to give him a yellow card. That sure didn't stop him. Just like the first half, Phil got his goal a few seconds before the end of the game. The crowd went nuts as Phil celebrated on front of them. The final score is 2-0.

The real hero of the game is Chieffy Caligdong. Sure, Phil's dagger goal on Mongolia was great had Chieffy not scored that important goal in the first half, the Azkals wouldn't have the advantage they needed. Coach Weiss was of course pleased with the win but he stressed that his boys could've score more:

For a nearly a dozen times, the goal-scoring opportunities took place at the goalmouth, but were denied repeatedly by the Mongolians, who were reduced to 10 in the second half.

“It was a good match because our game plan to put pressure was put into reality,” Weiss said shortly after the match witnessed by more than 20,000 at the Panaad Stadium here. “But it was a pity we didn’t score more.”

The 43-year-old former coach of Rwanda’s Under-17 side said he plans to give the players technical training in scoring more goals.

“We will put more sided games with goals so the players have many scoring opportunities in the training. We will also do some technical training for the players to get in front of the goal and then score more goals than it was the case today (Wednesday),” Weiss said of his wards, who were expected to have a scoring binge against a team inactive for nearly two years.

“But we were also unlucky in some parts of the game when we hit the post many times. So if we put it all together a 3-0 would have been absolutely fair even a 4-0 would not have been ... (impossible).”

While the German Coach may have a valid point on the matter, they still have a chance to do on their next game against the Blue Wolves in Mongolia on March 15. They will begin training on February 21-26 in Baguio to prepare the team for the cold weather in Mongolia.