Lions give Azkals the boot

A 19th minute goal by Khairul Amri ended the Philippines’ dream of advancing to the finals of the 2012 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup after bowing to Singapore, 0-1 last night at the packed Jalan Besar Stadium in Singapore.

Philippine goalie Ed Sacapaño once again had a brilliant goalkeeping performance except for that one lapse where he got caught flatfooted by Amri, who was given enough space to pick up a short pass from a free kick and sent the ball deep into the left of the net.

The Philippines did not only have to contend with an unfriendly crowd off the pitch, it also got battered on it with Singapore resorting to a very physical game that saw Phil Younghusband repeatedly going down.

The artificial pitch also contributed to the Azkals misfortunes as most of them are not used to it. Instead of ground pass, the Philippines resorted to long passes which did not work well on the hard flat pitch.

With Jerry Lucena back in the lineup, the Philippine defense got some reprieve, unfortunately its strikers were not able to create scoring chances with Phil Younghusband only getting one shot on target with four minutes left in the first half when he picked up a cross from Angel Guirado. But Singapore goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud clinically blocked the attempt.

Mahbud was also able to anticipate an attempt by James Younghusband who picked up a pass from Patrick Reichelt within the two minute added time before halftime.

The Philippines corrected its first half lapses with team captain Emelio “Chieffy” Caligdong coming in early at the start of the second half to replace Reichelt to provide the Azkals with much-needed attacking verve.

Philippines head coach Hans Michael Weiss also put in Demit Omphroy for James Younghusband and Denis Wolf for Carlie de Murga in the final half.

But despite a better ball possession, the Philippines was still hounded with bad passes and was not able to create scoring opportunities despite relentlessly tasking the Singapore defense.

Singapore soaked up the pressure in the second half with the Azkals getting into their flow. The Lions’ reward was a fourth finals appearance against the winner between Thailand and Malaysia.