By NIKOLE JAVIER
The Philippine men’s national football team finally solved the riddle and defeated Afghanistan, 2-1, during their FIFA international friendly match on Tuesday night, Sept. 12, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Frustrated in their first two encounters which both ended in draws, the Azkals made sure they would emerge victorious this time, recovering from a 1-0 deficit behind the back-to-back goals by Sebastian Rasmussen and Christian Rontini.
After settling for a 1-1 stalemate with Chinese Taipei a couple of days prior, the Philippines managed to give itself the much-needed boost heading into their camp for the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup third round qualifiers happening in November.
The Nationals started aggressively and had a couple of early chances in the first half but just couldn’t find the back of the net.
Both squads entered the break on a scoreless draw – thanks to the gallant effort of Azkals captain and goalkeeper Neil Etheridge.
The Philippines first met Afghanistan in 2006 and then in 2014.
However, the Afghans finally opened the scoring in the 64th minute after converting a set piece into a goal fired by Omid Popalzay off a long pass from Zelfagar Nazari.
It didn’t take long for the Azkals to find an equalizer as Rasmussen managed to get past a crowd of three defenders on his own as the catalyst for the fightback, 1-1.
With the scoring finally steadied, the Philippines continued the onslaught after Jose Porteria’s shot was deflected, earning them a corner kick.
Seven minutes later, the Nationals converted their own set piece when Bienvenido Marañon retrieved his own corner kick from Jesse Curran and delivered it straight to Christian Rontini for the go-ahead header to put the Philippines on top.
