NEW CLARK CITY — For nearly 90 minutes, Sandro Reyes felt the Philippines did all it had to do against Thailand.
Then came the one moment the Thais needed.
READ: Late Waris header breaks Pinoys' hearts as Thailand nips PMNT
Waris Choolthong’s late winner condemned the Philippine Men’s National Team (PMNT) to a 1-0 defeat and left its ASEAN Hyundai Cup semifinal hopes hanging by a thread.
For Reyes, it was a harsh ending to a performance in which the Filipinos stood toe-to-toe with one of Southeast Asia’s traditional powers and were just minutes away from completing what he called the “correct game.”
“I think everyone did excellently, from the back to the front. Those who came in, everyone gave their all. At the end of the day, it's just that Thailand has a lot of quality, and the smallest, smallest mistakes punish you,” said Reyes.
“I don't think there were any individual mistakes. It was maybe more of a team mistake in that moment, but for 87, 88 minutes, we played the correct game.”
The Philippines frustrated Thailand for long stretches while also finding openings to threaten at the other end.
Reyes felt the opportunity was particularly there in the first half, when the PMNT grew into the contest and showed enough going forward to believe they could hurt the Thais.
“I think we felt confident in the first half, and we felt we were in the game and we had chances,” he said. “This was the time that if we were going to hurt Thailand, to do it, it's just the bounces.”
Rain came pouring down
The rain-soaked pitch hardly helped.
Reyes said the slippery conditions made it difficult for the Filipinos to fully commit when chances came, denying them the clean contact needed to make Thailand pay.
“The pitch was very, very wet today, so for our forwards or whoever had the chances, it was not very easy. You didn't have the confidence to commit to the shot. For whoever had the chance, it was so unlucky to not be able to get good contact," Reyes said.
Thailand eventually showed why the margin for error against it is so thin, with Choolthong finding the breakthrough late to turn what had been an encouraging Philippine performance into a costly defeat.
“It's just at the end, I think, not unlucky, of course, because Thailand is really, really good but we can be happy with ourselves,” said Reyes.
The Philippines, however, no longer has the luxury of simply playing well as it now needs to beat Malaysia by at least five goals in Kuala Lumpur and hope Thailand defeats Myanmar to squeeze into the semifinals for what would be a sixth time.
The odds may be stacked against the Filipinos, but Reyes said there will be no shortage of fight with their campaign still alive.
“We’ll give our all to get what we need," he vowed.
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