scarface - news has come in that Schrocky is not playing due to an injury.
My prediction - (heart = SIN 2 / Azkals 3) ; (head = SIN 3 / Azkals 2)
I hope my heart rules my head!
Based on FIFA/Coca Cola World Rankings the best the Philipinnes can achieve is a jump from 166 to 156 placing. This is provided with favourable winning results against Singapore and Nepal. But at the current time with the Azkals behind on the scoreline against Singapore this increase of 10 placings seems unlikely. You can check the rankings and play with the rankings calculator here. But like many others you will scratch your heads when you see where some other countries are ranked above PHI.
Two of our three corner kicks were wasted by Caligdong's miskick.
Singapore the first goal from a corner.
YES, we lost TWO - ZIP! the first goal was unfortunate and the second was forthcoming...we had to stretch our front line to create opportunities but we just could not convert. WHY? WHY? WHY?
Jose,
Maybe jetlag have something to do with it or maybe the artificial grass in the Jalan stadium takes a bit of getting used to by our players (the ball bounce higher and the ball rolls faster when playing on artifical grass).
@HRK1 those are very valid points you make. I know for a fact that teams who expect to play on turf, typically train on turf for the reasons you mention...the game will always be faster paced on turf, as opposed to turf, its a given...jetlag, how much time did they spend there before they played? Most teams take at least 1 day or so if it is 5 hour travel time, and more as the time increases for this same purpose. Even our youth teams follow this same principle...no one wants spaghetti legs...
Tough game. Really thought we would do better. Singapore defense was really tough and seemed to well understand our strengths, playing style, and compensated well. I think we definitely missed Schrock, who as a creative player has been seen to move the ball very well against even better teams than Singapore. We seemed to demonstrate a bit more of the disconnect that comes from not playing together too often. Even though the first goal was soft the second was better and overall I guess we just were not good enough on the day and probably deserved the result. Sorry to say, but just demonstrates we have a long way to go. On a hopeful note, with many of the guys now playing in UFL, hopefully they will have more chance to train/play together and improve our cohesion. We are a threat to anyone here in Southeast Asia, we are not too far away from achieving great expectations!
Our Norsemen Johnson, Cagara and Lucena were very different by the time they played Nepal. Jet lag is INDEED a factor.
O By the way. Schrocky played the entire game in today's Greuther Furth Bundesliga fixture against FC Erzgebirge Aue. Injured? I wonder what the real story was for him not being able to come over for the pair of friendlies against SG and Nep?
i have no doubt schrocky's heart was in it. he has been a tireless contributor on the pitch for the azkals, as anyone who has watched him even off the ball, could verify. i suspect his german club just came in and influenced the situation. in some ways they can't be blamed for looking after their own best interests, although i would also think that the more caps schrocky gets, the higher value he could command in the transfer market ;)
