THE Philippines’ national soccer football ‘pathway’ team Azkalroos proved a surprise packet at the Western Sydney Wanderers Asian Community Cup tournament recently, reaching the quarterfinals before going down gallantly in the semis to powerhouse Lebanon, 5-1.
The young outfit of mostly Filipino-Australians had drawn first blood early in the first half through captain Anthony ‘Ace’ Garnica, ringing alarm bells on Lebanon, 1-0.
But they couldn’t sustain the momentum and, despite a gutsy performance, the Filipinos just couldn’t match the Lebanese experience and talent.
The tournament, held at Marconi Stadium in Fairfield NSW, was a football festival of the Asian communities ahead of the AFC Asian Cup to be held in Australia for the first time in 2015.
The teams competing were Australia, the Philippines, Australia (NSW Police), Lebanon, Afghanistan, Bahrain, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea.
The Philippines was drawn in Group C alongside Hong Kong and Indonesia.
In the opening game on November 9, the Philippine team bowed to Hong Kong, 2-0, and in the second game drew with Indonesia, 0-0, to keep their hopes alive.
The Azkalroos’ next game was against Nepal, with the winner to go through to the quarterfinals. In a see-sawing battle, vice captain Edward Roberto stepped up to score the winning goal and send the Philippines through to the quarterfinals with a 1-0 victory.
In the quarterfinal the following week, the Philippines was matched against one of the tournament favourites, Lebanon, whose team contained four former Lebanese Internationals.
The Azkalroos started strongly to take a 1-0 lead through Garnica, but Lebanon fought back strongly to lead at halftime, 4-1 lead.
They were denied two hotly contested penalties, battled bravely in the second half lost the game, 5-1.
Western Sydney Wanderers’ Tim Thorne said said: “We were delighted with the Philippines’ performance in the tournament. They were very unlucky with some penalty calls but fought hard until the end backed by some wonderful fans.
“They were by far the youngest team in the tournament including 14 year old Dustin Villareal, and the team got a lot of attention with their style and sportsmanship.”
Team manager Ricky Villareal said: “Most of our older players were unavailable or in the Philippines and this young team, performed like true fighting Azkals against much more experienced players ”
The players will continue to play together as part of the Azkalroos’ talent identification program managed by Andrew Fletcher and former Philippine international star Leigh Gunn.
The four semi finalists are Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq and Australia with the semi finals to be held from 1-5pm at Marconi Stadium on Saturday December 6, 2014.
I’m in the Philippines & Leigh is in japan with Azkals U/22s so we are both short of details.
Villareal and Garnica shared coaching duties.
THE AZKALROOS: Anthony Garnica (captain), JohnBanas, Ben Aguilar, Joseph Farrugia, Patrick Elhindi, Christopher Urqueza, Juneal Runio, Raphael Lapreal, Chuck Mendoza, Marvin Malabanan, Dustin Villareal, Walter Lampart, Phil Lampart, Eddy Roberto, Shawn Banas, Ethan Ramos, Tim Griffiths.
