AFC Challenge Cup Pre-Qualifiers: Philippines vs. Mongolia 2nd Leg Recap

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Philippines vs. Mongolia

It was a loss for the Azkals but they will still be advancing to the Qualifying Group Stage as they lead in the final aggregate score.  It was a different Blue Wolves that played in today’s match as they had more chances and more ball possession compared to how they performed in the 1^st Leg.

There were factors that could have influenced the outcome.  The obvious one is the freezing temperature.  Azkals are clearly not used to playing in really cold weather and it had a definite impact on their speed and agility.  Another possible factor could be the missing key players.  The Azkals’ defense was not as compact as I would have wanted it to be.  Could it be because Gier and De Jong were out?  Did Sabio need more practice time with the team so he’d have more seamless play with Borromeo?  Of course, Etheridge was also missing.  Sacapaño did okay but there were moments when he could just not lock down that save, like what happened in the 2^nd goal of Mongolia.

Did they re-arrange the positions a bit? I think Borromeo played more in defense in this match compared to  the 1^st leg where he was in attacking midfield (I’m not really sure what the other changes are).  

P. Younghusband was not in his top form, there were instances when he’d go to the sides and get some medical attention.  He got substituted in the 2^nd half and seemed to have injured his hamstring.  Wasn’t he injured in their Baguio practice game?

Over-all, it was great match with both sides having their chances in scoring, unlike the 1^st leg which was pretty much one-sided.  I like the pairing of commentators, one was an excitable announcer and the other one was this calm British guy.  At least this time, they didn’t call it a free throw J

Final Aggregate Score:

Philippines: 3

Mongolia: 2

Here are numbers:

Philippines		Mongolia
1	Goals scored	2
12	Shots on Goal	16
7	Free Kicks	6
1	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	0

Goals:

            3^rd minute – James Younghusband (Philippines)

            21^st minute – Lumbengarav Donorov (Mongolia)

            33^rd minute – Garidmagnai Bayasgalan (Mongolia)

So now, the Azkals will join Bangladesh, Myanmar and Palestine in Group A for the Qualifiers Group Stage.  Their next game will against Myanmar on March 21, 5PM in Philippine Time.

The AFC Challenge Cup

In just a few more hours, the 2^nd leg of the Azkals’ qualifying match against Mongolia’s Blue Wolves will start.

Should they win based on the aggregate sore (to the football newbies, this is the total of the 1^st and 2^nd leg match scores), they take a spot in the Qualifying Group Stage.  If you’re confused on what the Qualifiers and Pre-Qualifyiers all mean and what it is in relation to the AFC Challenge Cup.  Well, I’ll try to clarify it for you…

The AFC, or the Asian Football Federation, has divided its member nations into three groups or categories, which are the:

Developed Associations – these are the best teams or the top of the group.  There are 15 nations under this which, of course, includes Japan, Australia, South Korea, etc., some of which have already played for the World Cup.

Developing Associations – these teams are not quite as good yet as the Developed Nations but already have strong football programs in place.  Obviously, they’re better than the Emerging Nations but not as good as the Developed Nations yet.

Emerging Nations – these are the teams that still need time to develop their football.  And yes, this is where we belong.

So anyway, in 2006, AFC decided to hold a competition for the Emerging Nations which they called the AFC Challenge Cup.  For me, this is a pretty good idea as it gives the new teams to try out their skills in an international competition but against teams of their same level.  I imagine, a team like Japan or Australia could massacre us in a tournament (although, in football, anything can happen).  This tournament (if I’m not mistaken) happens every 2 years. 

In the 1^st AFC Challenge Cup in 2006, there was still no qualifying stage.  This means that the teams were automatically qualified to join the tournament.  But in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup, there is no direct or automatic entry to the tournament.  Basically, this means that the teams (even the defending champions and the runners up) need to play and win matches in order to be eligible or qualify to play in the AFC Challenge Cup tournament proper.

What makes this confusing is that there is a pre-qualifying stage in order to reach the qualifiers round, sorta like needing to qualify to the qualifying stage.  Confused?  So am I.  Here’s a simple way of looking at it:

Basically, the 12 highest ranked teams (Bangladesh, North Korea, India, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) plus the four winners from the Play Offs will compete in the Qualifying Group Stage in order to be eligible to play in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup tournament Proper.

The Azkals, are still trying to win the Play Offs stage in order to play in the Qualifying Group Stage.  So we’re still trying to qualify to qualify… I don’t think I’m making sense anymore, hehe...

In today’s game, the Azkals have a pretty good start coming in with two goals from the 1^st leg.

For the win:

Blue Wolves

• They should at least score three more goals than the Azkals in order to win

Azkals

• A draw could advance them to the next stage by virtue of away goals
• They can maintain their aggregate lead by not letting the Blue Wolves score more than 3 goals than they do

If that was confusing, maybe this would be easier to understand, below are score combinations showing which team can qualify to the next round.

Blue Wolves	Azkals
0	0
1	0
2	0
3	0
4	0
5	0
1	1
2	1
3	1
4	1
5	1
1	2
2	2
3	2
4	2
5	2
1	3
2	3
3	3
4	3
5	3
1	4
2	4
3	4
4	4
5	4
1	5
2	5
3	5
4	5
5	5



Highlighted in yellow means that that team will proceed to the Qualifying Group Stage.