BACOLOD CITY -- Rarely does a Philippine team slip into the role of odds-on favorite in an international football match. But when they do against an unranked foe today, coach Aris Caslib vows they will not leave anything to chance.
The Philippines, ranked 195 among 205 countries in the world, faces the first of three must-win situations starting today when it battles Timor Leste in the Asean Football Championship-Qualifiers here.
Cambodia debuts against Laos, the Philippines’ conqueror Sunday, at 7 p.m. The top two teams in this biennial tournament will qualify to the eight-team finale to be hosted by Thailand and Singapore.
“Definitely, we are going all out in today’s match,” Caslib told the Inquirer on the eve of the clash that is expected to draw another full-house in the 23,000-seater Panaad Park and Stadium.
The RP booters are actually hoping for a repeat victory against the Timorese side, which they nipped, 2-1, in the 2004 Tiger Cup in Malaysia.
Fleet-footed left winger Emelio Caligdong was the hero of that clash, scoring deep in the second half to lift the Filipinos to their first-ever victory in Southeast Asia’s most prestigious football tournament.
With two key players -- Chris Greatwich and Phil Younghusband -- arriving just a day before their first match, the Filipinos lacked attacking flair early on but managed to pick up the pace late in the second half only to suffer a 1-2 setback to Laos Sunday.
The Philippines actually missed the services of Fil-American midfielder Henry Brauner, who was ruled out against Laos due to passport problems.
Caslib, however, said that cohesion was not the main culprit in the loss that sent them down the table along with the Timorese, which went down to Brunei, 2-3, Sunday.
“Cohesion was not a problem,” he said. “That was how we really wanted to play. We played a lot of balls on the left side to Caligdong and Phil Younghusband but we were not creative enough.” Cedelf P. Tupas, Inquirer Visayas
