THE Philippines' semifinal bid remained alive but it has a mountain to climb in order to reach its goal after Indonesia drew with Laos, 3-3, on Thursday night at home in the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2024.
One of the favorites to reach the semifinals, Indonesia was pegged back by Laos but it remained in first place with four points in Group B thanks to a slim 1-0 win over Myanmar last Monday. Vietnam is in second spot with three points after a 4-1 win over Laos.
The result gave the Philippines a chance to gain a semis spot but a 1-1 draw against Myanmar last Thursday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium momentarily altered the landscape.
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Philippine Football Federation director of national teams Freddy Gonzalez said the draw made PMNT's bid to take one of the two semifinal berths for Group B a lot tougher.
“You can’t draw these kind of games,” said the former national team player. “Like, what was it? We had something like 28 attempts, eight on target. It’s a sure 100 percent three points.”
The Philippines’ next assignment will be an away match to Laos on Sunday at the National Stadium KM16 in Vientiane before it plays the heavyweights in Vietnam on December 18 in Manila and Indonesia on December 21 in Surakarta.
“We didn’t do the business so it’s really disappointing because we need to win these two games. The first two games, I’m not going to say easiest games, but they’re the lighter games in the group,” said Gonzalez.
“We wanted to be playing against Vietnam with six points in hand. We can’t do anything about it. So we’ve got to go to Laos, get the three points, come back here and beat Vietnam. So that’s really the way it has to work,” Gonzalez added.
PMNT coach Albert Capellas is confident that the team will be able to play well against Laos even after they bungled several scoring chances against Myanmar.
Despite the draw, Capellas said the team can still go far, though he rued the missed opportunity.
“I'm really impressed what the players are trying to do. And we will grow. Now we have to also believe in ourselves to build this culture of winning,” said Capellas, who took over the PMNT last September.
“I’m not worried at all. But on the other hand, we have missed a big opportunity to win the game. And that is why I'm disappointed. Because I think, even with the mistakes, I think the team really deserves to win that game.
"And I’m sad for them. Not for me. My job is always help them, help them, help them. That is why we are here. But I'm disappointed especially for the players. Because they really deserve to get a good result,” said the Spanish coach.
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