A brave Philippine side held its ground in the face of a North Korean barrage to claim a precious point after a scoreless stalemate in their World Cup Qualifying clash Thursday at Kim Jung-il Stadium. The Azkals survived wave after wave of attack from the hosts who were backed by a lively, boisterous 50,000 strong crowd. The result also boosted the Azkals haul to seven points as they responded impressively from the 1-5 beating they suffered to Uzbekistan last month. It marked the first time the North Koreans dropped points in qualifying after three straight wins including a 4-2 win over Uzbekistan here last June. sports.inquirer.net/195845/ph-azkals-hold-north-korea-to-scoreless-draw-in-wc-qualifiers
Uzbekistan is bouncing nicely after their 1st matchday loss They're beating Bahrain 3-0 away right now I'd be really surprised if they don't make it next round
That change of coach seems to give them a big lift, 3 victories in 3 games for Babayan, 2 of them away.
Bahrain was totally demolished, their fans began to leave match after third goal... in the past Bahrain was really uncomfortable team for us, but now i make sure that there is huge class-difference between our teams
3 points in 4 games for Bahrain, pretty much out unless a miracle happens (and even...) Semmed like they were one of the top oustiders a few years ago but now..
Philippines needs an away win against Bahrain if they have any hope of catching up with either N Korea or Uzbekistan. Even if they achieve that, it is still going to be difficult in this very competitive group. as the 2nd place team have given up points to the other teams in this group and will have a hard time making it among the top 4 2nd placed teams in the 2nd round. Fatigue will be factor with the Philippines though. They have already taken 18 hours to reach Pyongyang and probably will take even longer to reach Bahrain crisscrossing the continent on only a few days rest. The Philippines played well in the first half against N Korea though, when they had more possession of the ball. However they started cramping in the 2nd half, and had to hold on in the latter stages to keep the score even.
Indonesia being disqualified screwed things up for this group. This is a group where every team could/should take full points vs the last team (Yemen) but will take points from each other making the possibility of 2nd place qualifying slim.
agree it is the toughest group in the 2nd round as 4 of 5 teams have chances for 2nd place, in other groups only 2 teams fighting for the 1st place
I am not sure it was a disadvantage. I don't think Indonesia would have given up the same number of goals as other last placed teams in other groups so the goal difference would have been much less for the teams in this group. Nevertheless the other 4 teams(including Yemen despite their losses) are not giving up much either in terms of goal differential, making it hard for any team to be among the best 4 2nd placed teams.
FT Bahrain 2-0 Philippines looks like all the travelling(60 hours) and lack of training finally caught up with the Philippines. It is going to be tough to advance to the third round now.
We are preparing since a week. Nobody injured. But we don't know anything about Korea accept we lost them in DAY 1, so can't even say who will be better on Thursday.
You guys can win with one goal because they go all park the bus style in Tashkent. Believe in yourself, Uzbekistan has the power to defeat every team in Asia.
If I was the Uzbek coach I would focus on smooth flowing play. North Korea would love if the game got ugly with many fouls, many throw-ins, corners. Let Haydarov, Jeparov, and Ahmedov keep the ball in play and move North Korea around.
taking into account the fact that tomorrow will be raining in Tashkent all over the day, it would be better for Rashidov, Akhmedov and Geynrikh to shoot from outside the box... it's also very effective if North Korea park the bus against our positional attacks
Important win for Uzbeks and great reaction to going a goal down right at the start of the match. Philippines lost to Yemen at home, anyone watched that?
Yes I did. They actually had more possession and chances at goal. They just couldn't finish. Anyways, they are done with regards to the World Cup. They now need to focus on the Asian Cup. They didn't look as sharp as they did during the start of WC qualifiers, with the UFL having finished their season more than 2 months ago and no friendlies scheduled in the interim. Anyways in reality, the Philippine program is still quite new and the results in this WC qualifying group considering the strength of the group is not too far from what people expected during the beginning of this tournament and is much better than in the past WC qualifiers.
it's time to check young players in the match against Yemen in Doha, in all probability, we nearly assured the first place in the group, NORTH Korea is OUT! Babayan is coming to revenge SOUTH for last qualifiers