AFC Challenge Cup: Bangladesh vs Philippines Update 3

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Bangladesh vs Philippines

So here’s my attempt in doing stats:

Bangladesh		Philippines
0	Goals	3
13 (7)	Shots Taken (on Target)	23 (11)
2	Corner	5
4	Offside	1 (?)
5	Free Kick	7
2	Yellow Card	0
0	Red Card	0

 

It’s harder that I thought, especially because the video quality was bad and the camera angles make it confusing.  So, in counting the Shots Taken and Shots on Target I made some judgment calls :P (FYI, there were like 9 crosses/set up/corner kicks that looked like it could be a Shot Taken but I didn’t count it as one).  Anyway, if you’re interested, I based this on the definition here.  The offside is a question mark coz I didn’t notice any for the Azkals but the commentator mentioned that Philippines had one, so I’m not sure if they got it wrong (coz sometimes they do get it wrong, so just to be sure, I counted it… I’ll just check in the replay and update this J).  Same as the previous game, I got the Corner Kick and Free Kick numbers from ABS-CBN but the rest I counted it myself.  We differ in the Shots Taken stat (they had Philippines-18 and Bangladesh-10). 

Goals:

            41^st minute – Ian Araneta (Philippines)

55^th and 80^th minute – Angel Aldeguer Guirado (Philippines)

Yellow Cards:

            Sheikh MD. Mintu (Bangladesh)

Karim MD. Razaul (Bangladesh)

And again, I know this isn’t usually done, but I’m separating the figures of the 1^st half from the 2^nd half so you can see how the game changed from after halftime.  Coz sometimes a team starts slow at first and would pick up in the second half, or vice versa.  And if you just look at the over-all stats, sometimes it won’t tell you the complete story of the game, so here’s my 1^st half-2^nd half breakdown of the stats J

 

Bangladesh			Philippins
1st Half	2nd Half		1st Half	2nd Half
0	0	Goals	1	2
7 (3)	6 (4)	Shots Taken (on Target)	11 (5)	12 (6)
2	0	Corner	2	3
3	1	Offside	0	1(?)
2	3	Free Kick	3	4
0	2	Yellow Card	0	0
0	0	Red Card	0	0

You have probably read the news/reports on this game, but here are my two cents on this match (if you’re interested):

1)   First off, I loved the pre-match segment J  It’s always nice to hear from the coach, manager and the team to get some actual “behind the scenes” info on the game.  I have always wondered how the homegrown talents interact with the Fil-Foreigner players (fyi, I have a post coming up about “non-homegrown” talents … I’m just doing a bit of research, it’ll be out in a few days J).  It must be hard for Guirado since he can’t speak English, Tagalog or Cebuano.  Speaking of Cebuano, did you know that Fil-Icelandic (is this what you call people from Iceland? :P), Ray Jonsson speaks it fluently?

Headers!
photo courtesy of Craig Burrows and
Roy Moore of pinoyfootball.com.  More of their pics here

2)   Headers, headers, headers.  Did you notice a lot of headers in the game?  Guirado scored his 1^st goal with one (btw, that was an amazing goal).  Araneta almost scored his second with a header.  And headers were also used to clear the ball a lot… I always wanted to do perfect headers, but I’m afraid of miscalculating and hit the ball with my face instead… and it really hurts if you hit your nose L

3)   They re-arranged the formation and I think Guirado worked well in his new position.  Was he an attacking mid-fielder?  He really made his presence felt in this match.  He helped with the defense in getting the ball back, made some great set ups for the offense and he even scored two goals himself :P  He looked quite intimidating on the pitch…I wouldn’t want to play against a guy like him. 

4)   There were a lot of talk of how we were an attacking force to be reckoned with in this match (with 3 goals, 23 Shots and 11 On Target), but I think credit is also due to our defense.  They were very organized and compact in this match.  Bangladesh actually had some great passing and fluid team play but they just could not get past our tight defense.  And if they did, it was  because they were offside :P

5)   Twitter does not do justice to the game.  I really appreciate a lot the tweets from @DYANCASTILLEJO, @cedelfpt, @craigburrows and @roymondous to update us in the match, but it’s really different from actually watching the game.  I hope there’s a live telecast on the Azkals’ next match.

mystery solved
Photo from www.pinoyfootball.com by
Craig Burros and Roy Moore.  More pics here

6)   Mystery solved.  That’s Guirado under that pile, not Araneta.  That was after he scored the 3^rd goal of the game.

AFC Challenge Cup: Palestine vs Philippines Update 3

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Philippines vs Palestine

After watching the delayed telecast of the match, here are the numbers:

Philippines		Palestine
0	Goals	0
8 (5)	Shots Taken (on Target)	19 (7)
2	Corner	9
0	Offside	1
8	Free Kick	5
3	Yellow Card	1
0	Red Card	0

I got the Corner Kick and Free Kick numbers from ABS-CBN but the rest I counted it myself.  We differ in the Shots Taken stat (they had Philippines-13 and Palestine-18).  I dunno if mine are accurate, especially the Shots on Target numbers coz it can be a bit difficult to decide if it’s on target or not.  Anyway, in counting the shots (and shots on target), I based this on the definition here (and after reading this definition, I’m doubting the accuracy in my Shots stats in the Myanmar game… oh well, I guess I’ll learn as I move along J).

Yellow Cards:

            Simon Greatwich (Philippines)

M S Albahdari Abdallatif (Palestine)

            Anton Del Rosario (Philippines)

            James Younghusband (Philippines)

I know this isn’t usually done but I’m separating the figures of the 1^st half from the 2^nd half so you can see how the game changed from after halftime.  Coz sometimes a team starts slow at first and would pick up in the second half, or vice versa.  And if you just look at the over-all stats, sometimes it won’t tell you the complete story of the game, so here’s my 1^st half-2^nd half breakdown of the stats J

As I’ve said in the Myanmar vs Philippines post-game post (J), I know this is like days too late and there have been a lot of news/reports on this game, but here are my two cents on this match (if you’re interested):

Philippines			Palestine
1st Half	2nd Half		1st Half	2nd Half
0	0	Goals	0	0
0 (0)	8 (5)	Shots Taken (on Target)	12 (3)	7 (4)
2	0	Corner	7	2
0	0	Offside	1	0
1	7	Free Kick	2	3
1	2	Yellow Card	0	1
0	0	Red Card	0	0

1)   It was great that ABS-CBN did not anymore spend an hour in the pre-match analysis (the last time the game ended at almost 2AM).  But I think they’re not used to airing football matches coz they sold a lot of ad slots (or maybe they were just looking at the profit? :P) and it’s funny because they crammed it all during the pre-, halftime and post- match analysis.  The commentators would only say like 3-5 sentences and then cut to a commercial break.  It was a bit ridiculous coz it seemed like the ads were longer than the actual analysis “spots”/segments.

2)   Looking at the stats, I guess you can say that Palestine is really one of the stronger teams in this group.  They had quite a lot of attempts in the 1^st half and even though only a few are on target, those were really dangerous shots.  But Etheridge is an excellent goalie and saved us from conceding goals

3)   Although we had zero shot attempts in the 1^st half, it was not without trying on our part.  There were some beautiful crosses from JYounghusband and Caligdong but it just couldn’t find someone in the center to finish off the shot.  The Palestine defense was just so tight and organized, they made it really hard for the Azkals to create scoring opportunities.

Chieffy Caligdong 
photo courtesy of Craig Burrows and
Roy Moore of pinoyfootball.com.  More pics here.

4)   Speaking of attack, Guirado didn’t really make his presence felt in this match, especially in the 1^st half.  I dunno if it’s because of Palestine’s compact defense or he was just a tad bit slower in this game.  Was he injured in their previous game?  ..Caligdong had a few opportunities but Palestine’s defense was really good.  However, I like the fact that he also created chances for the Azkals, he some great set up crosses, as did JYounghusband.

5)   With Palestine’s attack, yes, they had a lot of shot attempts and very fast with their counter but a few of them were like 40-50 yard runs.  Personally, I’m not really impressed coz I prefer the quick, one-two passes among players, showing fluid team play.  But, that’s just me J  Palestine also have two amazing long shot attempts.  One was during the 1^st half by N O Alfawaghra Ashraf and the second one was in the 2^nd half which I think was still by the same player (I’m not sure).

6)   Palestine’s H A Mahanja Ahmed (the one with the #12 jersey, who I think is also their team captain) was quite a threat to the Azkals’ defense.  I wonder how old he is, is he Palestine’s version of our Barsales?  But then again, just because your bald doesn’t mean you’re old, hehe J Take Wayne Rooney, can you believe he’s only twenty five?  He kind looks like he’s in his 30s :P

7)   In this match, we faced a more “bigger” opponent.  Unlike the Myanmar game, the Palestinians players are tall.  But we held our own, we have the likes of Aldeguer, Borromeo, Younghusband, Etheridge, etc., so I guess you can’t really say we’re the smaller team, “physique-wise”.

AFC Challenge Cup: Bangladesh vs Philippines

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Bangladesh vs Philippines

In the crucial game which decides if the Azkals will advance to the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup, Philippines came out strong and won a resounding victory with 3 goals.  First goal came from Ian Araneta in the 41^st minute, ending his international goal drought (of 9 games).  Angel Aldeguer Guirado scored the last two goals in the 55^th and 80^th minute.

I can’t really comment more on this as I didn’t get to watch the game.  But reading it from the tweets of @craigburrows, @roymondous, @cedelfpt and @DYANCASTILLEJO, it seemed like it would have been a very exciting game to watch.

Anyway, with all games played in the Group A, here’s the updated table:

Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Palestine	3	2	1	0	5	1	4	7
Philippines	3	1	2	0	4	1	3	5
Bangladesh	3	1	0	2	2	5	-3	3
Myanmar	3	0	1	2	2	6	-4	1

Match Scores
Myanmar vs Philippines	1-1
Palestine vs Bangladesh	2-0
Philippines vs Palestine	0-0
Bangladesh vs Philippines	3-0
Myanmar vs Palestine	1-3
Bangladesh vs Myanmar	2-0

Palestine and Philippines tops the group and will qualify for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.  They will be joining India, Turkmenistan, Maldives and Tajikistan.  We’ll know by April 12 who will be taking last two slots for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.

I heard that Studio 23 will be air the delayed telecast of the Philippines vs Palestine game on March 29 @ 4PM (but I dunno yet if this is true, I’ll let you know).  But there’s definitely no schedule yet for the delayed telecast of Philippines vs Bangladesh game as ABS-CBN is still trying to get a copy of the video.  We’ll keep you updated.