Philippine Azkals draw first match with Sri Lanka

The game almost turned to be a disappointment for the Philippine Azkals.

The "Pilipinas Futbol" squad otherwise known as Philippine Azkals salvaged a 1-1 draw in their away game against Sri Lanka for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers held at Sugathadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka witnessed by a very sparse crowd yet Pinoy fans expressed their support by going to the game.

Fil-Am addition Nate Burkey saved the day for the Azkals with his very scrappy goal in the 49th minute to even things up after Sri Lankan Chathura Gunarathna put his team ahead, 1-0 in the 45th minute.

Azkals goalee Neil Etheridge made a spectacular save in the first 10 seconds of the extension period to give his team and the Pinoy fans some moments of relief after some anxious moments of a serious attempt by Sri Lanka to score a goal and sneak in a win.

The Azkals had two attempts to break the deadlock but Ian Araneta and Fil-European, Virado was both thwarted by a masterful job by Sri Lankan goalee Manjula Fernando.

Top striker Phil Younghusband was pulled out of the game somewhere in the 40th minute after a collision with an opposing player that resulted in a reoccurence of his former injury that he suffered playing against Mongolia.

The Azkals need at least a 0-0 tie to advance but we can be assured that they wont settle for just a draw because they would be playing behind their ever supportive fans in the next game to be held in the Philippines at the Rizal Stadium on July 3.

Philippine Azkals – A new hope for Philippine Sports

Talk about introducing some new look for Filipino sports fans.

A bunch of new guys has been making some noise and infusing fresh blood to the country’s already rich sports culture. And they call themselves Philippine Azkals.

Following a decent performance at the recently concluded AFF Suzuki Cup in which they qualified in the semifinals, the Azkals triumped over Mongolia in the AFC challenge cup 2-0 at the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod in front of the ever so supportive Filipino crowd.

Perhaps the most popular members of the squad are the Younghusband brothers namely Phil and James who always has been the first ones to be mentioned when talking about Azkals players.

But not to be outdone are the towering goalee Neil Etheridge, team captain Ali Borromeo and the newest fan favorite Emilio Calicdong who scored the “nutmeg goal” against Mongolia to give his team the 1-0 lead which they never relinquished.

The team’s future looks very bright for this squad as the support they have got from the government and private people alike is overwhelming.

The first step that those who support the team did was to make the Panaad Stadium pass the AFF standards and that is to be able to seat some 70-80 thousand people.

Football never had been an integral part of Philippine sports until now and it is good to hear that it is slowly making it’s way to being one of the country’s favorite sports.