Azkals lose to Chinese Taipei 3-2 in friendly anew

The visiting Chinese Taipei caught the Philippine men’s football team off guard with a late goal, 3-2, in their international friendly match on Monday night, June 19, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.

The Azkals made a first-half recovery and even took a 2-1 halftime lead before running out of gas in the final minute of the game.

Chinese Yen-shu Wu had a lucky breakthrough and opened the scoring in the second minute of the match when his free kick hit Azkals Mike Ott which went past goalkeeper Neil Etheridge.

Following the blunder in the early minutes, Ott went on to dig the Philippines out of the deficit and equalize through a penalty kick in the 13th minute.

The Nationals remained aggressive between Ott’s equalizer and the go-ahead goal of Azkals forward Patrick Reichelt in the 39th minute.

It was Reichelt’s first goal for the national team in 18 months, which couldn’t have come in the most perfect time.

Etheridge, who didn’t see action in the Azkals’ 1-nil win over Nepal last week, made up for the early slack with a couple of crucial saves that kept the Philippines in the lead in the early minutes of the second half.

However, Yao-hsing Yu came in the 58th minute with a strike to rescue Chinese Taipei and tie the match.

The Philippines continued its tireless onslaught and had a couple of missed shots inside the box as it remained tied at 2-2 until the final minute of the regulation when Lin Ming-wei rebounded a save by Etheridge to put Chinese Taipei on top.

“You cannot keep [pushing past] if you do not have the basic [form]. You come with the fitness like many of the players did [it will be hard], all of the players were not really in the good shape,” said Azkals head coach Michael Weiss.

The Philippines now hold a 2-3-3 win-draw-loss record against Chinese Taipei. — Nikole Javier