The Philippine Azkals defeat Guam 3-0 in Panaad

In the last of a series of International friendlies scheduled by the PFF during the window allowed by FIFA, the Philippine AZKALS were finally able to pull out big win.

The first match was a draw against Malaysia, then another draw against Indonesia at the Rizal memorial and the last one was a 3-0 victory against Guam at the Panaad stadium in Bacolod City.

Several key players were absent for this match. One big name is Stephan Shrock who was initially expected to play in all three matches but had to rush home to attend to a family emergency.

Manny Ott and Co-captain Chieffy Caligdong had to sit it out due to red cards awarded during the Indonesia game after a fight broke out. Aly Borromeo and Juani Guirado are both still nursing injuries which opened up a few spots at the back.



The line-up was not ideal but not necessarily inferior. The remaining AZKALS made up for the deficiencies and played a solid game. They dominated possession in a match against a very young, dynamic Guam side.

The time spent together reflected on the pitch as passes were a lot more coordinated. However, I'm not satisfied that this was a great performance. The scoreline doesn't really reflect the gap between the quality of the two teams.  If anything, the Azkals should have really clobbered these guys. No, I'm not feeling sadistic but winning against the weaker team may look good on the scoreboards but it doesn't really challenge our team.

Angel Guirado showed exceptional form in this match but I'm concerned about how he frequently becomes a non-factor when we play against better teams but seems to shine in other situations. Against Malaysia he gave a lackluster performance which made us miss James Young husband in the midfield. Against Guam however, he was just brilliant. He needs to be consistently good no matter how good the opponent is.

Phil Younghusband had a match to forget as he was hardly able to do anything. Dennis Wolf was able to take several shot most of which wide or straight at the keeper. It may have just been a bad day for both of them and thankfully, the other players made up for their lack of firepower.

Marwin Angeles has been making more of an impact in recent games and it's a welcome sight to see more players coming off the bench and giving us options. Angeles shows a confidence on the pitch that helps the team play at a faster pace and with a more aggressive stance. This is something that James Younghusband, although a great midfielder, sometimes lacks. His impressive ball handling and passing skills are often negated by a lapse in judgement in the end when he would opt to pass instead of taking on the shot (usually passing to his brother)

Coach Weiss has also improved in the experimentation aspect with more and more substitutes coming in earlier in the game. I wondered however, why he didn't substitute Rob Gier even when the poor guy had blood streaming down his entire face. It's just a friendly, we didn't need to wait for the players to keel over.

The Panaad stadium looked bumpy and uneven in several places but we are slowly getting there. Maintaining a pitch is serious and expensive business. I wonder if this is why ticket prices were steep? It's such a shame to see a steady decline in the number of people coming to the games. I know that the organizers are trying to strike while the iron is hot but an empty stadium doesn't really help anybody.

In the end, a win is a win and the screaming fans will be happy. After two draws, we needed this. Most of the new fans are happy enough. Guam looked pleased for one. Let's just hope this won't give the team a false sense of security. Beating a team nearly 50 places below us in ranking should be expected. We need to keep moving forward.