BOCAUE – Phil Younghusband rued the Philippines’ failure to pounce on an Singapore setback that left them a man down in their Suzuki Cup opening match on Saturday night.
The Singaporeans went down to 10 men after Hafiz Sujad incurred a straight red card following a nasty tackle on Younghusband 34 minutes into the match.
Yet the Azkals still found the visitors’ defense impenetrable the rest of the way, resulting in the scoreless draw.
“We’re obviously disappointed,” Younghusband said. “When they go down to ten men, you hope to capitalize.”
“It feels more like a two-point loss than a one-point draw,” he added.
[See Azkals fail to fire against 10-man Singapore, settle for scorelessdraw]
Deployed at midfield, Younghusband supplied the balls to his teammates, but their connections failed to bear fruit.
“I think we didn’t play bad,” the Azkals skipper insisted. “We created chances; we just need to put more than that, I think, if we carry on the same (mindset) against Indonesia early on.”
But the Filipinos will be facing an Indonesian side that gave defending champion Thailand a scare before surrendering a 4-2 decision earlier.
“They gave Thailand a tough game, so they’ll be dangerous, but going into the next game, we definitely need to win,” Younghusband said.
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