Azkals – Yemen postgame thoughts: It Is What It Is

MANILA, Philippines – Ironically, the Yemeni civil war indirectly gave Yemen a helping hand. One of the first things coach Thomas Dooley mentioned in his postgame press conference was that the Yemeni team, because of the war, had stayed together for two months straight, (the Yemeni coach, Amin Al-Sunaini told the media on Wednesday that it was actually 3 months), in Qatar, where they lived, trained, and played all their “home” games. The result was a team that, according to Dooley, connected well with each other.

The 2015 Yemeni football league is one of the many casualties of the war, with play suspended indefinitely. That meant the Yemeni boys were fully focused on their national team for months on end. Ironically, that helped the team fully gel.

In sharp contrast, the Azkals were only really completely assembled on Tuesday. With a paucity of training sessions together they, at times, looked disjointed. Of course, they have all played alongside one another for a while now, but daily training and scrimmages with the same set of players over a longer period of time, (Dooley has said he ideally wants at least 5 days), could have forged better cohesion.

To make matters worse, some of the players who saw action on Thursday planed in from Europe, so jetlag was another factor.

Perhaps we need to encourage our foreign-based Azkals to latch on to clubs in nearby leagues like in Thailand, China, or at least the Middle East if we wish for better results in international matches. That of course, is easier said than done.

We were done in once again by simple off-the-ball movement on the goal. I saw Ahmed Al-Sarori’s goal and was immediately reminded of the first goal Bahrain scored last month. They were eerily similar. Check this out from Thursday.

 

On the Yemen goal Abdulwasea Al-Matari, the number 11, dashes to the end line while Martin Steuble, the Azkals’ #21 has his back turned to him. That’s the key move that springs the goal. He gathers the ball at the end line and squirts it back near the penalty spot. After Daisuke Sato is unable to clear, it ends up with Al-Sarori, who dances around Kevin Ingresso and beats Roland Muller.

Now look at the first goal that Bahrain put past us last month.

 

This time it’s Sami Alhusaini ghosting behind Stephane Palla to take a return pass that he feeds to Ismael Abdulatif Hassan for the finish.

On both occasions, an opponent of the Azkals is able to move behind one of our defenders, where he cannot see him.

On the flip side, I recall in the second half, seeing a breakaway on the right flank and a cross coming into the box, with all but one player, the fresh-legged substitute, Misagh Bahadoran, storming in to receive it. No one else came in. With so much at stake and with the Azkals playing 3-4-3, it just didn’t seem right.

Movement without the ball is a simple, basic, concept in many sports, including football. Yemen gave us a harsh lesson on it on Thursday.

We shouldn’t blame anyone but ourselves. I have heard plenty of grousing about the Korean referee’s performance both online and in person. There was also the question about the Azkal shots that appeared to cross the goal line but were not given. I was seated in a good spot for the plays but I cannot conclusively state the entire ball went over the line, which is needed for a goal to be awarded.

I think we should not blame those circumstances. I hate making excuses. If we needed a favorable ref and goal-line technology to edge us over into a result then maybe we’re just not good enough.

We had the chances but didn’t take them. Our players simply froze when they had the opportunities. Plus the Yemeni keeper, Mohammed Ebrahim Ali Ayash, denied a Jerry Lucena header with “one of the best saves I have seen in my life,” according to someone who was tweetcasting the game. The fact that said Tweeter was none other than Neil Etheridge, unavailable due to a quadriceps strain, only adds to the luster of the stop.

We didn’t dot the “i’s” and didn’t cross the “t’s.” Steuble had his chances but none came to fruition. In one play Ingresso could have one-time-volleyed a loose ball over Ayash, (the keeper was out of his area), but instead took another touch that doomed the move. Patiño was unable to make his mark.

It appears that Phil Younghusband, despite the fact that he hasn’t scored all year for the Philippines, is more indispensable than we would care to admit. The Philippines has scored just one goal in our last 4 games, and none in the last 3.

The situation looks murky, even for AFC Asian Cup qualification. The good news is the Philippines is still in solo third in Group H with 7 points. That will likely stay that way until the next FIFA window in March, because Yemen plays Uzbekistan, (12 points), next week. The Uzbeks mauled Korea DPR 3-1, (13 points), on Thursday to creep up to within a point of the table-topping North Asians, who entertain Bahrain, (6 points), on Tuesday. The Azkals will be idle next week.

The World Cup seems out of our reach, but if we finish third in our group we are guaranteed a spot in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifying round, which will take place in 2017.

But this loss hurts because even a draw would have meant that we would have advanced to 8 points and Yemen would have been stuck in neutral at zero points. With only two matches remaining for Yemen, that would have made it impossible for them to catch us, meaning we could have finished no worse than fourth. (The top four fourth placers make the 2017 AFC Cup group.) But with Yemen now going to 3 points, the Philippines can still finish last or be one of the bottom fourth placers, which would condemn us to another round of playoffs to qualify for the 2017 group stage qualifiers.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

The Philippines must now play the top two teams of the group, Uzbekistan and Korea DPR, in March.

Bahrain, our biggest rival for third place, still plays Yemen and Uzbekistan.

The ramifications of this loss are far-reaching. Instead of a feel-good ending to 2015, we must stew over this loss for another 4 months, before we travel to Tashkent to joust with the red-hot Uzbeks, scorers of 12 goals in their last 3 matches, all wins.

Football in the Philippines needed a nice boost before year’s end but it got the exact opposite.

If we slide into the playoffs for the AFC qualification next year, then we will have at least one home-and-away series, probably during FIFA dates. That might distract us from preparations for the Suzuki Cup. Remember, the composition of the Suzuki Cup team will be mostly UFL-based players since the tournament is not played during FIFA international windows.

My prayer is that enough sponsors will see through this rough patch of results, take the long view, and continue to support the team.

There was more than the game going on. Daisuke Sato wore an undershirt in honor of Rogie Maglinas, the UP Maroon Booter who has been sidelined by cancerous tumors. The Ultras Filipinas unveiled a poignant banner in the the thirteenth minute, (Rogie wears that number for UP), reminding him, in very Liverpudlian fashion, that he will never walk alone. Centerback Amani Aguinaldo walked around the track after the game in Rogie’s UP jersey. (Aguinaldo studies in UP Diliman but does not play on the varsity team.)

(READ: UP footballer Rogie Maglinas determined to win cancer battle)

There was plenty of respect for the visiting side, whose players got a small but heartwarming round of applause after leaving the pitch. When asked if the folks back home were able to watch the game on TV, coach Al-Sunaini said in the press conference that much of Yemen doesn’t have electricity these days, but that somehow Yemenis would find a way to catch the game either on TV or via streaming, presumably through the use of generators.

A small cadre of Yemenis took in the game in a corner of the white bleacher, replete with a big Yemeni flag.

One last word on the attendance. The official figures revealed a crowd of 6,478. That is frustratingly a thousand less than the last home game, the loss to Uzbekistan in September, which was held in Bulacan.

I think I have the ticket pricing issue figured out. The grandstand was pretty well-populated, with spectators stretching all the way to the ends. That means that the price range there, from P1500 to 300, is reasonable to the target market.

But the white center bleachers were far, far from full, and the end bleachers, apart from the Ultras, were pretty much completely empty. The organizers charged P300 for center bleacher tickets and P150 for the open air seats on the ends.

What this tells me is we are close to nailing the sweet spot for the well-heeled fans but missing out on the needs of budget-conscious Azkals supporters.

My plan to ensure sellouts is as follows: keep the grandstand prices pretty much the same, but slash prices for the bleachers. I’d consider doing this: make the end bleachers a “student section,” where students need only show a school ID to get a free ticket, then charge P50 to P100 for a center seat. – Rappler.com