I'm glad that we lost. We may have some good chances in the game but I'm sick of these park the bus tactics.
Philippines were missing 8 players from their WC qualifying roster(due to injuries, retirements or not released by their clubs) most of whom were starters. Their defence especially was hit hard, because of all the losses. That is why their backline looked disorganized. They were also missing their best player on offence, Patino who was instrumental in leading the Philippines to victory over North Korea in the WC qualifications, as he was not released by his Chinese club. They still had most of the possession though.
Final Results today Thailand 1-0 Singapore Philippines 2-2 Indonesia Current Grp A Standings Thailand wins the grp and is guaranteed to make it to the semis. The other 3 teams still have a chance of being the second team to advance.
That's just random! Someone simply says that the match was entertaining and you quote them and reply by trying to highlight how the Philippines is missing players. So if the Philippines had all their best players, it wouldn't have been an entertaining match? There might be missing players but Dooley has handicapped the team further with his dodgy call-ups and match day selections. Indonesia aren't at their strongest as well. As per the commentary, Reidl was only allowed to select a maximum of two players per club and they've got injuries as well like Irfan. Anyway, the Philippines definitely had more of the ball but Indonesia created more. Muller was very busy. They even hit the post three times if I remember correctly. I said in the other thread that the Philippines would be lucky to get a draw and I'd say that was actually the case. An improved performance but the amount of gaps they left throughout the match specifically in midfield was pathetic. Will definitely get punished badly by Thailand if they keep that up.
Grp A Indonesia 2-1 Singapore Thailand 1-0 Philippines Indonesia and Thailand make it through. Just as I feared, the Philippine's could not make up for its losses and did not advance.
Well, the Philippines appear to have stagnated or at least not shown the promise they had maybe 6 years ago when I personally thought they would rock the region and become top dogs. As for attendance figures. Well, it's showing me that the Philippines aren't into their football as much as I initially thought.
They are not. They still have a long way to go especially at the grassroots level. The initial enthusiasm they had in 2010 esp. in the National Capital Region which includes Manila, where basketball is still king, has faded, although in the Visayas region in the middle of the country, football is very much alive and when the national based Professional Football League finally starts its maiden season next year, I think you will see the crowds come over there. Unfortunately the PFF did not do a good job of promoting this tournament. Most people in the National Capital Region where most of the fans could have come, were not aware of it. They could also have arranged travel packages for the football rabid regions of the Visayas so they could attend the tournament, but as it turns out, the other teams in the group were doing a better job at doing this than the home team. With the venue, a couple of hours drive from Manila, not enough fans were willing to travel the distance to watch the games. The ones that did, were turned off during the first game, after the buses that the PFF arranged for them to be picked up near Manila arrived more than a hour late, forcing them to miss most of the game. As for the team's performance, they were missing most of their starters(up to 8 players missing) from the WC qualifying roster, so I wasn't really optimistic about their chances in the Suzuki Cup. I think they would have made at least the semis if they had all their players available, but Thailand which has been playing strong teams in the 3rd round of the WC qualifiers would still have prevailed in the end.
Singapore's manager is a fraud. I'm surprised that he brought so many old and unfit players for this Cup when he get the young players instead. He flopped at Negri Sembilan, Tampines and now the national team. He has to go. The team is really in a mess.
Final Standings for Grp B Vietnam and Myanmar qualify for the semis and will face Thailand and Indonesia. Congratulations to all the semifinalists.
The Philippines did not qualify for the semis of the Suzuki Cup(after circumstances forced them to lose up to 8 players most of whom were starters from their WC qualifying roster), but the bright lining is that they introduced a lot of young players to the national team. They only had 2 players in the team who are in their 30's(Schrock and James Younghusband), both of whom just turned 30. The rest are in their 20's or younger, and after trying out several players to partner 21 y/o Aguinaldo at centerback, they seem to have found an answer in 17 y/o centerback Casambre, who had a good performance against powerhouse Thailand. They remained competitive throughout the tournament and showed that that they can hold their own against the more experienced and older teams in Grp A. I think they will be okay when Asian Cup qualifying starts next year(when many of their missing players will hopefully become available) and their long term prospects also look promising.
I haven't seen much of the action and can only comment on the results and final tables. Here is what I think of the teams that have failed to qualify to the knockout stages: - Singapore, fallen well behind the pecking order now. I guess when they won their championships there domestic setup was better than most in the region, even the domestic setup is falling behind now. They appear to be moving backwards - Philippines, although FIFA rankings have them better than most in the region, but reading Pelefan's comments, it would appear they have two rosters on the go. An Asian cup roster and an AFF roster. Unfortunately with the make up of the squad it might always be like this. Would be good to see them challenge in a final - Cambodia, I believe something positive is happening here. Their domestic league these last few years has started to be more organized and moving forwards. Certainly appears to be helping the national cause. They prepared well for this competition. They need to keep up this momentum but I expect now it's ended the impetus might get lost and they won't move much further forward - Malaysia , appears to myself like they just don't care. I hate to say it, but using players like Darren Lok who hasn't played much football appears as if they just selected him because he was from overseas in the UK. I'm sure there must be players above his standard. Malaysia the biggest fallers here.
The whole of football in Singapore is a mess. It won't be long before the S.League disappears at this rate.
Let's not BS anyone here, after what had transpired, the Philippines should've made the semis regardless!! It seems that your bias towards Dooley has made you come out with excuses rather than telling it the way it actually is! They couldn't hit a barn door against Singapore, yet they were down to 10 men for almost an hour! Dooley failed to make adjustments and they played the same way the entire match! That was two points dropped! It can be argued either way that they were lucky to get a point against Indonesia or that a draw was fair result. Finally against Thailand, they were there for the taking as they used what was essentially a reserve team that was barely exerting much effort! Yet the Philippines were very pedestrian the entire match. Absolutely no urgency in their play in what proved to be a must win game. In the end, epic fail! Sh!t turnout in what was a sh!t campaign. Although for the neutrals, the draw against Indonesia will go down as somewhat of a classic. Overall, looks like the spectators were right to stay away! lol. As for missing eight players, it's more like four! You can't count players who have retired as "missing". Even then, this is where Dooley screwed up. In the build up to the tournament, he still kept on calling up the European based players knowing (or at least he should've known) that they wouldn't be available for the tournament. Only Mike Ott became available. Failing to call up local players in the build up to fill in the gaps was idiotic and costly. There's no way you're gonna convince me that some 17 year old who was only involved as an unused sub in the final friendly before the tournament was gonna be an answer to plug in one of the many holes in the squad!
First of all, I am not biased towards Dooley. Check the Philippine thread on my post about his performance. Secondly I am more realistic about the Philippines chances after all the losses(including the retirements) so I wasn't really expecting too much from them. A 17 y/o ended up starting because most of the potential players in the centerback position either retired, were injured or were not released by their club. Considering it was his first cap and the fact that he was a teenager, I thought he did well against powerhouse Thailand and many of the coaching analysts and media reviews in the Philippines seem to agree. Whether he continues to do so remains to be seen, but his initial foray into international football seems to be promising. As for the long term answer at centerback, we just need to wait for 23 y/o Fil Swede Jesper Nyholm to commit to the team. He will be playing in the top tier Swedish Allsvenkan next year with AIK, and has showed a lot of interest in eventually playing for the Philippines. This is assuming of course that he doesn't get called up by the Swedish national team in the meantime.
Its getting a bit annoyed when Pelefan always mentions that Pinoy lost 8 players during this tournament. How you want to compete in a bigger stage if you can't cooperate with another type of players ? The biggest flop I think: 1) Philippines because they play on their ground/home soil. Cant make a win/draw because losing 8 players. Their fans not really behind their teams as well. 2) Malaysia mainly because of their coach. 9 players from 23 selected players are mostly seat on the bench in the Malaysian league & only to be selected because they are his favorite players.
Right I don't really have much positive to say for the Philippines hosting of the Suzuki Cup. Their performance on and off the field was abysmal. They made the semifinals of the Suzuki Cup while playing away 3 straight times since 2010, even with players missing for various reasons. It is ironic that it is when they eventually got the opportunity to host a group stage that they failed to advance. Off the field, the PFF also did not take advantage of this opportunity by properly marketing and promoting the event, as the attendance was extremely disappointing. All I can say, is that unless football becomes more relevant in the Philippines and the PFF proves that they can do a better job organizing events, they don't really deserve to host a tournament like this again.
There is a reason why I had low expectations for this team, and that started with the missing players, most of whom started in the WC qualifiers. As usual, none of the local centerbacks used lived up to your expectations, especially the 17 y/o, but in the end he didn't give up a goal during his time on the field. I don't know but pretty much everyone was happy with his performance, except you it seems. Sure he made mistakes, but for a debut performance from a teenager, he didn't do too bad. As to how a 17 y/o ended up starting in a critical game, that is a different question altogether. Dooley's rationale was that he did well in training, doing well and not backing down against his more experienced teammates. To me, it speaks of the shallow pool that the Philippine football has domestically. Unlike the other Asean Football Fed nations, they don't really have a vast pool of international caliber players to draw from locally, so when most of the players based abroad became unavailable, the best that Dooley can come up with was a 17 y/o who hasn't earned a cap yet. I agree with you though that Dooley should have tested him and other local centerbacks first in the friendly games leading up to this tournament even for at least half a game, but I think he was hoping that Sato who ended up playing in those friendlies, would be released by his Romanian club, which didn't turn out to be the case. As for Nyholm, I can assure you that he is interested in playing for the Philippines. I have had conversations with him in the past. The only thing is he is still harboring hopes of playing for the Swedish national team and after garnering well deserved recognition this year for his play in the 2nd division(best defender in that league) numerous top tier teams vied for his signature for next year and he ended up joining 3rd placed AIK in the top tier Allsvenkan. Let us see how that plays out first. My guess is he will not commit early enough to play in the Asian Cup qualifiers, but I think his decision will depend upon how much playing time he gets with AIK. If he ends up sitting up most of the time, I will try to convince him to commit to the Azkals earlier.
Vietnam self-destructed in extra time. Would have been better to park the bus and play for pk. They can probably be called the chokers of this tournament. Named as the top 2 favs almost everytime but most of time will get knocked out in the semis despite playing a weaker team. Congrats to Indonesia. Alongside Thailand(6 times), Indonesia has made the finals the most times although they always finish as runners-up.
Good game by Vietnam. I heard they scored 2 goals despite being a man down to tie Indonesia. It wasn't enough to advance to the finals but it was a good try. After watching both Grp A teams in the group stage, I also will stick with my pre-tournament prediction that Thailand will win this tournament. They are just too deep, too experienced and too strong.