Day of reckoning for Azkals

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine football team will be looking at making history when it collides against Sri Lanka tonight in the first game of a home-and-away series where the Filipinos appear to have more to lose than their opponents.

It is for this reason that football officials have left nothing to chance to make the country’s first World Cup qualifying game in 10 years a success.

For one, money was no object as the Philippine Football Federation spent P15 million for a two-week camp in Germany the past month to make sure that the team, affectionately named Azkals, is tough, united and cohesive for their historic clash against Sri Lanka at their 25,000-seat national stadium.

The game is scheduled at 4 p.m. Sri Lanka time and will be aired live over Studio 23 at 5:30 p.m.

Although the Philippines and Sri Lanka hardly register in the world football Reichter scale, both teams are taking the match seriously, more so the Philippine side whose football renaissance hang in the balance with this encounter.

A loss is almost unthinkable. A win is everything. The PH side has done everything to win the game, except hire Ronaldo – Real Madrid’s star striker from Portugal.

With victory in mind, team officials have assembled what they believe to be ‘the strongest attacking team in the history of Philippine football.’

Even the weather condition is probably on the side of the Azkals, Colombo weather being tropical. Their defeat against Mongolia in the AFC Challenge Cup qualifier a few months back was partly blamed on cold weather. Sri Lanka temperature is hot and humid.

Although the Filipinos are hopeful, this game is just one of two scheduled in a space of five days. A loss is not the end of the world, as they have a chance to bounce back on July 3 at the refurbished Rizal Memorial football stadium. But a win would almost assure the Azkals will advance to the next round of qualifier against the much stronger Kuwait.

Ranked 13 spots higher than Sri Lanka in the world rankings, the Azkals are predicted to win by at least two goals against the Lankans who are more renowned for cricket where their skill is world class.

In case the Azkals advance after two games, they will become the first national team to get past the first round of the World Cup qualifiers, a historic achievement for a nation where football, the world’s most popular sport, is an afterthought.

“Winning by two goals will be the most ideal for us,” said team manager Dan Palami.

FIFA records posted on Wikipedia.com showed that the last time the Philippines faced Sri Lanka was in the 1997 World Cup qualifiers, where the Filipinos lost, 3-0.

But Juan Cutillas, who coached the national team at that time, said the record was wrong and that they lost to Bangladesh and not Sri Lanka. He added that the last time the Philippines met Sri Lanka was 38 years ago when the country beat the South Asian nation, 4-1, in a Merdeka tournament in Malaysia.

Azkals ace striker Phil Younghusband believes they can overcome Sri Lanka.

“We watched one video of Sri Lanka last week against North Korea. It was very hard to judge Sri Lanka because North Korea was far superior and Sri Lanka did not see much of the ball. But based on what we saw, we are fairly confident that we can make Philippine football history,” Younghusband said.

Sold out

Meanwhile, Bonnie Ladrido, chair of the organizing committee for the home match, said the 1,400 extra tickets they released yesterday were soldout in 30 minutes.

Ladrido also warned the fans from scalpers as he reiterated that tickets will go through three levels of security to determine their authenticity.

Francis Santiago, Manila Bulletin