The Philippines’ bid to return to the biggest football tournament in Asia next year ended in a 4-0 beatdown against group B winner Palestine last Tuesday in Ulaanbaatar. While a draw is the best we hoped for against the higher-ranked Palestinian side, the heavy defeat crushed the Azkals and the hopes of many that the team will advance to the tournament proper.
It also exposed the team’s weaknesses, like a porous defense, the lack of communication in the pitch, our inability to adjust against bigger, better opponents, and that vaunted Azkal bite was missing the whole game. After the Palestinian scored their first two goals in the first half, the team simply lost the will to fight back. Which to me is the most disappointing of all. The team just watched Palestine humiliate them on the pitch. The first three goals were made by unmarked scorers.
I thought the Azkals had a slim, but fighting chance coming from the morale-boosting win against Mongolia in the previous game. But regrettably, Palestine deserved to win. Indonesia and Malaysia likewise deserved to advance in the tournament proper after winning their respective last games.
“Where do we go from here? We need to reassess everything. Maybe I’ll use the tagline that we use in U.P. — there’s nowhere to go but up. But no, I think plain and simple, we failed. There are no excuses for that. We all have to man up to our own shortcomings,” Dan Palami, the Azkals’ team manager, told The Designated Kit Man.
Palami maintained that when he said everything, he meant everything — from the players, coaching staff and even the management team. He explained that if the team needs to improve and get better, the Azkals need to improve as a whole organization.
“Admittedly, I wasn’t involved too much in the preparations because of some business dealings that I had to conclude. But we all have our responsibilities and we have to own up to our shortcomings. We apologize to the fans who have supported us and who had high expectations. We are very sorry to disappoint them. And sorry to all stakeholders too,” he added.
Of course, there were so many reasons why we lost. Lack of preparation, no team chemistry, Gerrit Holtmann arrived late, it was the coaching staff’s fault, the Philippine Football Federation is also at fault, too, the team management is to blame, Schrock is not in the team, Thomas Dooley was out-coached and other explanations.
These reasons and many more were already pointed out by so-called football experts in many online forums. Even during the livestreaming of the Azkals’ games, there were so many people bashing the team. And most of them, sadly, were Filipino fans. We are probably the only country that bashes openly our team most of the time, online and in other platforms, with our opponents’ fans, especially when the Azkals are down.
Personally, the failed campaign boils down to one very important reason: preparation.
Even if we hire the likes of Carlo Ancelloti, Pep Guardiola and even Zinadine Zidane, but only have less that two weeks to prepare and with an incomplete lineup, we can’t really expect to win against squads, which have been playing together for quite some time, and have elevated their games when playing for flag and country until the final whistle.
Palami says in an ideal world, the Azkals should have enough time to prepare, but this will never happen and they need to adjust to this reality.
“There will never be enough time for preparations. Because that’s how FIFA international breaks work. Unlike before where most of the players that we have are not with professional clubs, we have time to go on camps. Now, the FIFA international dates are restrictive in terms of getting the team together for a longer period of time. So we have to admit this and have to work on these conditions and stop dreaming about long preparation times,” he explained.
He also acknowledged the need to have players, who are in the country form the core of the Azkals.
“If the players are good and they are playing for top level clubs, then we can only get them during FIFA international breaks, which is the maximum of 10 days including the game. We need to scout more players and bring them here, which is basically the essence of the Azkals Development Team. It allows players to experience professional club football and get them together so that we have a core of players who are based domestically,” Palami added.
Palami is also hopeful that a longer domestic season will happen soon to give local-based Azkals more time to prepare, play more games and in the process, remain fit and improve further on their skills. Prior to the Ulaanbaatar qualifiers, there were only a handful of games in the country due to the pandemic in more than two years.
“The domestic league plays a big role in terms of player preparation and team preparation. That is critical. It is unfortunate that in the past three years we’ve only had a limited number of games for teams. But that’s not anybody’s fault because we have to abide by government regulations. But hopefully with the lifting of restrictions and with more freedom to move around,” he added.
Despite the failure to qualify, Palami has one good takeaway in the Mongolia campaign.
“One of the reasons was to give experience to the younger and new players. The average age of the players has dropped a lot. We are looking at a promising set of talents that could be with the team for the next five to six years,” he said.
But then again, Palami’s words may not mean a lot to those who immediately called for drastic action not only against the team but to the whole Philippine Football Federation as well. Well, say what you want against Dooley, the PFF or even Palami. You will be probably right and even feel entitled to do so. Because it is very easy and badass to blame anyone, especially for some so called “fans” who are only there when it is convenient and “uso” because the bandwagon is there once again.
I may even agree with some of the arguments but the bottomline is: we really need to prepare for major tournaments with or without international FIFA breaks. We can’t just assemble a team in 10 or 15 days and expect better results come tournament time. We have to resolve the hard truth of having players based overseas, to come in the country and be with the team for some reasonable time before any major competitions. We simply can’t have a team assembled in June only to compete in a tournament in June. This has to go.
Preparation will always be the key, whether in football or in life.
That being said, loving the national team is not easy. Just like loving this country of ours. It is very difficult and honestly the “this is only the country or team that we got crap” reason is no longer applicable. The team failed to return to the Asian Cup, yup as bright as a June afternoon here in the metropolis, but is this enough reason to abandon the team and the country in general? Of course not, we need to plod on. Criticize the team when needed and is called for? Do so any time. Show tough love when appropriate? Yes by all means. Be outraged when the team falters? It is reasonable. We can also grieve for now. But please never abandon the team.
If you are a true Azkals fan, you know what to do.
Stay safe. Stay happy peeps!
For comments or questions, you can reach The Designated Kit Man at erel_cabatbat@yahoo.com or follow his account at Twitter: @erelcabatbat