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Azkals 5, Chinese Taipei 1 Postgame thoughts: More surprises from Dooley

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Photo by Deejay Diosina of NPPA Images.

Musings on the Azkals’ splendid thrashing of Chinese Taipei to open the PFF Peace Cup.

Thomas Dooley got creative on us, and it worked. The Azkals coach has been very difficult to predict, especially when it comes to his starting lineups. On Wednesday, he was up to his usual unorthodox self.

A week ago the Philippine team played a scrimmage against Global, where Kenshiro Daniels was fielded in as a right back late in the game. He told me that he had never played at that position in his entire life. (He’s usually an attacking player.)

Well he has now played an entire international game at that slot, and he did quite well.

It was a gutsy call by Dooley to bring in Daniels for an injured Simone Rota, especially when he has two veteran right backs at his disposal in Carlie De Murga and Anton Del Rosaro. (Simon Greatwich could have also been an option.) But I think Dooley correctly gauged the weakness of this team from Chinese Taipei and for much of the match actually employed Daniels as a right winger in something like a 3-5-2 when they would go forward. From there he unspooled several useful passes, and to my recollection, made only one error in defense all night.

But will Dooley dare to field Daniels at right back against Myanmar? That’s a very risky proposition, since Myanmar’s forward line is quicker, craftier, and plays more as a team than the Formosans. Azkals Assistant Sebastian Stache scouted Myanmar’s startling 4-1 rout of Palestine. I’d love to know his thoughts on what he saw. My guess is that if Rota still isn’t fit, De Murga could start on Saturday.

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The other curve Dooley threw was bringing back James Younghusband into the start list, at center forward. James is usually a right winger where he can use his terrific crossing ability to create problems. But James is a fine header of the ball, (he was denied by the post in the second half off a header) and is quite tall, so playing him at number nine was a great move. His tenth international goal (off a sublime run and assist from Misageh Bahadoran, who was terrific on Wednesday) moves James into third in the Azkals list of active-player goalscorers, a goal more than Ian Araneta and six adrift of Chieffy Caligdong.

The elder Younghusband was shut out of much of the Challenge Cup, but it’s obvious he has worked hard in training to win the gaffer’s trust back.

Mark Hartmann gave us a glimpse of what he is capable of. If you only watch Azkals games, you will perhaps be wowed by Hartmann’s late-game brace. But if you watch the UFL, this is old hat. Marky is a wicked finisher who can beat you with either foot and with his head.

His first goal was very similar to one he scored for Meralco in the Singapore Cup two years ago. He gets a Patrick Reichelt cross from the right wing and volleys the ball DOWN INTO THE TURF for a sure score. Many players would have skied that over the bar, since the ball was a few inches off the ground. But Mark’s technique was too good for that.

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It was similarly perfect on the next goal, a blast from the edge of the penalty area that had to be inches away from where older brother Matt scored his only international strike against Nepal in 2011.

Hartmann was the UFL’s leading scorer in the 2014 league but was a shock omission in Dooley’s Challenge Cup team. I would think he is now a lock for the Suzuki Cup.

Myanmar is going to be one tough customer on Saturday. The Indochinese side hammered Palestine, who only dressed thirteen players, with a rhapsody of short-passing, and quick, intelligent off-the-ball-movement football.

Kyaw Zayar Win assisted on a goal and scored two others. Tin Win Aung is a clever central attacking mid who knows how to unlock defenses. But the player who really shone was Kyaw Ko Ko, their #10 who seems to be a false nine with the way he takes the ball deep on attack. Ko Ko is shifty and unpredictable, with a great eye for the pass and an even better one for goal. His catalog of head-fakes, backheels, and jukes and jinks keep defenders guessing.

Kyaw assisted both Win and Nanda Lin Kyaw Chit on their scores. The first assist was a beauty. He tapped the ball over a Palestinian defender, regathered, outran the defense, then fed Win for the finish. In 2011 Kyaw Ko Ko victimized the Philippines with a sick goal that involved two such playground flick-overs over Boiboi Fernandez and De Murga in the 2011 SEA Games. You can see the video here, at the 3:00 mark.

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Myanmar has another ace up their sleeve: coach Radojko Avramovic, who took what looked like an unremarkable Singapore side and brought them to the Suzuki Cup title in 2012, defeating the Azkals in the semis and Thailand over two legs in the final.

Avramovic may have been unsuccessful with Myanmar in the Challenge Cup, but he is a wily mentor who knows ASEAN football well. For sure he has a dossier on the Filipino players that is as big as a Yellow Pages directory. If there is one coach who knows how to beat the Philippines, it’s Avramovic. And right now he has a promising Myanmar team humming. Saturday’s final match should be a war.

The new turf was given a stern test and it passed. For the second time in three international matches at Rizal Memorial, the game was momentarily suspended because of torrential rain. The new Limonta turf did eventually drain away all that water, and I thought that considering the puddles were this big at one point, the pitch did well.

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Image copyright Bob Guerrero.

I suspect that had the surface still been grass, the game might have been abandoned.

The Philippines needs more artificial pitches for fields that get a lot of use. Our combination of hot, dry summers followed by biblical rain is the worst for grass pitches.

This is a terrible spot for a scoreboard. Literally hundreds of seats have their view impaired with the scoreboard here. I say move it back to it’s old spot, on the south-west corner of the track. There it blocks nobody and is visible to everyone except fans in the green bleachers.

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Image copyright Bob Guerrero.

The attendance was pretty awful. The combination of a Wednesday night game, a too-early 7 pm kickoff, rain, and the Gilas tipoff against Puerto Rico at 7:30 pm conspired to create a very sparse crowd, especially at the bleachers section. The grandstand was maybe a third full.

The powers-that-be have to do something. They have already lowered the tickets to just P60 in the bleachers, a good start. Maybe they can open the end bleachers to students for free. Or push back weekday kickoffs to 8 pm instead of 7 pm. If you get off work at six then fighting through either traffic or the chaos of our rail system to reach Rizal Memorial in time is a big ask.

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Image copyright Bob Guerrero.

Fortunately the Ultras Filipinas were in fine voice, and kept energy levels up in the crowd.

Hopefully Saturday’s game will be a different story. The team needs a large and raucous home crowd to give them a boost to take a third straight Peace Cup title.

Please show up on Saturday and invite others to come. For the sake of Philippine Football, and a team that deserves our support.

Follow Bob on Twitter @PassionateFanPH. The Philippines-Myanmar final match kicks off at 7pm in Rizal Memorial. Tickets are available at Ticketworld outlets. The bronze medal match between Palestine and Chinese Taipei kicks off at four pm.

Live coverage of the final will be starting 6:30 pm on ABS-CBN Sports + Action (channel 23.) The bronze medal game will be live on Balls Channel only.