More Points to ponder for the Azkals

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More Points to ponder for the Azkals

by rick olivares

Seems to me that there are a lot of unhappy people at the Philippine Men’s Football National Team not making it passed the group stages for the first time in the past four stagings of the Suzuki Cup.

The PMNT accrued only two points from the available nine, and scored only two goals (while conceding three).

I do not know the dynamics or how this team is run on a daily basis having only started writing about football again a few weeks ago. So my thoughts are from what I see from afar and could possibly be uninformed.

Nevertheless, here are some thoughts I’d like to offer and possibly answer some of the contentious points that followed the Suzuki Cup.

Phil Younghusband playing deep instead of the customary forward position.

I see nothing wrong with this. Some of the former managers even had him playing behind some like Angel Guirado and Javi Patiño. Phil is an underrated passer and in this tournament, he showed his terrific work ethic (maybe except the final minutes of the Thailand game where he stepped off the gas pedal).

Sure Phil is our all-time leading scorer. And he has five goals in four Suzuki Cups. He usually scores one goal per tourney but he had two in the 2014 edition with one coming off a penalty. So he hit his quota in this series.

When Phil is upfront, opposing defenders guard him like a leech sometimes rendering him ineffective. I like him playing in the secondary where he has more freedom to move around.

I like how you have two dynamic forces in the middle in Phil and Stephan Schrock moving that ball up and chasing everything. My concern is that force up front.

I always thought that Misagh Bahadoran should always start. I do not know the reason for him coming off the bench. This isn’t hindsight. I wondered about that when I saw the starting XI. Yet even so, we need that dynamo upfront.

Bahadoran is at his best when he is darting in and the field is open. That is not to say he cannot weave around defenders for a goal.

If Phil is given a target upfront, then he can slip those throughballs the way his older brother James used to do before. Mark Hartmann could be that – he’s got power in his boot, height, and has a great free kick. The knock on Mark is he is slow. Angel Guirado was like that too. If they can dance around defenses like Phil or Chieffy Caligdong used to do, that would solve the riddle up front.

I found the wingback attack sorely missing.

Was Patrick Reichelt injured? In bad form? That sort of player -- and you can add Dennis Cagara to this conversation – in my opinion was sorely missed. You know, that Dani Alves type who can raid and fly up and down the flanks with speed and that ability to send crosses with aplomb.

None of the current wingbacks played that way and sometimes, I felt that we didn’t load up on the attack.

Since this team doesn’t have that stud scorer, then we should keep sending those crosses inside because they can wreak havoc on opposing teams no matter how good their defense.

Pass and go. Quickly.

As much as I like the better flow of the game, I’d still like to see the PMNT release the ball. You can see opposing defenders double on Schrock and Phil when they would bring up the ball. The result was a tackle and a foul. I thought that opposing teams did what they oft would do to Phil years ago – knock him down a lot. Make him think twice. I had this fear that Schrock would get seriously hurt. He was the recipient of some nasty tackles and fouls.

The train players to quickly assess the situation. Move the ball up if space is granted to you. See where players are moving and where best to send the ball. It takes a second to process all this because you know opposing midfielders will harry you. Especially teams like Indonesia and Singapore that played five midfielders with a few of them defensive in nature.

Again, I am not sure how they train for this or what their rules are, but I’d like to see them play those small triangles to quickly move up that ball. For safety and to be less predictable.

Is it all right to be disappointed the PMNT didn’t go through?

Of course. In a Group of Death, anything can happen and that is what occurred. What we should regret is not taking advantage of Singapore going down to 10 men and being unable to score against Thailand.

I believe this also serves a strong reminder that we aren’t there yet. The quality of Philippine football has definitely gone up. Technically, it has only been six years since the breakthrough of the 2010 Suzuki Cup.

I have previously said that it will take a generation, maybe even two, before we see bigger and much better results.

This loss will serve as fuel for that fire.

My post-Suzuki Cup Azkals thoughts

My post-Suzuki Cup Azkals thoughts

by rick olivares pic from aff suzuki cup site

There should be no shame when you bow out of the Group of Death. That means on any given night, one team can knock off the other. Nevertheless, there’ll be much soul searching for the Philippine Men’s Football National Team after it crashed out of the group stages of the Suzuki Cup following a 1-nil loss to Thailand last Friday, November 25 at the Philippine Arena.

This is the first time in the last four stagings where the Azkals will not advance beyond the group stages. The last time the PMNT didn’t make it out of the group stages was in 2007 (the team didn’t qualify at all for the 2008 edition).

The PMNT will rue not taking advantage of Singapore going down to 10 men and who played that way for close to an hour. Plus, it has to hurt that Thailand went to their bench and they still matched up pretty well versus the Philippines that had its first team on the pitch. The Thais left only defender Koravit Namwiset as the only player who suited up in the War Elephants’ second match of the group stage (against Singapore).

Make no mistake, there is quality up and down the roster and this is one of the better sides we have ever produced.

There was a total of 28 goals scored in both group stages (in the Philippines and in Myanmar) and only three were scored from outside the box, the Philippines had one of them coming from a brilliant free kick by Phil Younghusband.

The two goals scored by the PMNT is their lowest since the football renaissance in the country. The Azkals scored three goals in the group stages in 2010, four in the group stages of 2012, and nine in 2014.

While the goal scoring and attack is better, the defense has been somewhat leaky. In Vietnam in 2010, only one goal was conceded in the group stage. There were two goals against the Azkals in 2012, and four allowed in 2014. While the Philippines conceded only three, the only scored two so there’s a negative in the differential.

Thailand tallied six goals with one coming from just a foot outside the box. All their others goals came from runs inside the box.

Indonesia, the other semi-finalist, also scored six goals with four coming from crosses.  

Let’s take a look at some offensive statistics in terms of attempts.

Country	Attempts	On Target	Off Target	Corners
Thailand	27	11	16	22
Indonesia	37	21	16	11
Philippines	37	21	16	21
Singapore	22	8	22	8

Here is another table with regards to the dangerous intent.

Dangerous Attacks	Singapore	Indonesia	Thailand
Philippines	30%-22%	27%-31%	27%-22%

Looking at that data, the Philippines rains a lot of shots at opposing goals. However, they tend to be very wasteful with their chances. The shot attempts also infer the industry of the players but the finishing needs to be better.

In my opinion, on the attack, they need to send more people inside the box during their attacks but to also leave some players positioned outside the box in case they need to move the ball back or to guard against the counter.

And there is the importance of the first goal.

Since Thomas Dooley took over in 2014, when the Philippines scores first, they stand a better chance of winning the match. Since the came under Dooley, the Philippines is 5-2 in Suzuki Cup, AFC Challenge Cup, and World Cup Qualifying play when they score first.

In this 2016 Suzuki Cup, Thailand and Indonesia have had better finishing kicks. They win the war of attrition by playing tough in the first half. They try to score goals and then finish you off in the second half. That is also a testament to not only their quality but also their mental fortitude as well as fitness and conditioning.  

Looking forward, how do they proceed? I think defensively, we’re fine. We’ve got very good midfielders. The Younghusband brothers are still terrific and Stephan Schrock is always a delight to watch.

Believe it or not, I still think there’s that need for that tall, creative striker who can attract a whole lot of attention up front. I like Misagh Bahadoran who has always been an impact player. I also like the industry of Hikaru Minegeshi. But we need that tall fella up front.

If we can’t find someone, why can’t we naturalize? Whatever happened to the bid to naturalize Izzo El Habbib, the former Kaya and Global stud forward? Wasn’t he a candidate? The man can sure score goals.

Singapore found that stud up front with the now retired Aleksandar Duric. Vietnam has five naturalized African players playing the V.League. One of them is Nigerian striker Samson Olaleye, who smashed Le Cong Vinh V.League scoring record in 2015. He is only 28 years old and the question now is, when will he suit up for the Golden Stars as the Vietnam national team is called? Indonesia had Uruguayan Cristian Gonzales several years ago in uniform.

Nevertheless, that is for our football authorities to figure out.

Thanks for the campaign, PMNT. Let’s get back on track!