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Post by Caz on Jun 5, 2013 10:12:07 GMT 8
Lest we forget a certain black banner brought to the stadium. I sympathize with your frustration hongkongfootball but it was clear that local fan had no intention of maintaining good relations and showing respect to the visitors from the beginning. Did Hong Kong FA decide to have that banner removed? I hope so. Filipino football fans have a good reputation of being very respectful to visiting teams. We just want to watch a football match and cheer our team on. If the allegations of the Hong Kong crowd's deplorable actions are true, I can certainly understand, though denounce, retaliatory acts from the Filipino attendees. We Filipinos believe that there is no place for racism in football. We vehemently abhor such acts, even from our own countrymen. To be honest, the backlash against some Hong Kong locals' actions is worse than those from Gelora Bung Karno. That says a lot. Anyways, back to football. The Hong Kong team is veeerrry good. But the Azkals know how to take advantage of defensive lapses from good sides. They had one good chance and took it. We were lucky. The rain did hide the best football that could have been played from both sides. But I see the teams quite even. The Azkals seemed woefully unfit. It's good that we had this friendly to wake the team up. Neil had his best match since December 2010. Heroic stuff! Schrock, as usual, is a game changer. HKG did well to keep the ball from him but every time he had it he created dangerous opportunities for the Philippines. He needs to tone down the showboating though. This wasn't the best the Azkals have played, that's for sure. So I'm counting our blessings for walking away with a win.
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Post by mike fil montz on Jun 5, 2013 10:27:53 GMT 8
Superb game by Neil,deserves MOTM. Ref was obviously bias, props to azkals for keeping their cool. HK lead striker head butt Cris G. was very uncalled-for. Juani bicycle kick made us shout our lungs out.. Christiaenz workrate needs a thousand applauses. Moy looks fat. JYH improves, has patience now.
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Post by buddha on Jun 5, 2013 10:38:17 GMT 8
THE WEATHER. Yes it is an issue but NOT that big of an issue if you consider the football Hong Kong played despite the rain. I'm sure glad it rained because if it didn't I can't see us winning against Hong Kong's brilliant football!
FITNESS. I think, Caz, that's arguable. I think we were reasonably fit not "woefully unfit" and we can credit the UFL for maintaining our fitness levels. But it wasn't a battle of fitness more than a game of strategy and playing styles because if you take away the scoreline Hong Kong would win. They had the right tactics and their playing style was spot on for the occasion.
Our national team, on the other hand, is still fitting round pegs into square holes.
Cheers, mate.
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Post by roldforgoal on Jun 5, 2013 12:09:20 GMT 8
Incredible display of our MOTM Neil,that proved that he's still our #1 GK. Ive seen that we definitely need a young CB,rob needs to be taken out and looks exhausted. JYH was in superb.form lately shifting from RM to RB at the 2nd half,even chieffy was in good form, were now seeing the benefit of UFL in our NT. In a few years time we could now see our youngsters in the UFL improve,and i hope they would be called up for our NT. yes UFL help our players to be in a good form but im quite sad with the selection knowing that some of the players cannot finish the whole 90 minutes and some were also not 100%. imagine if Barbaso was there, he would have been a better option at RB rather than dropping James because Barbaso is a natural defender. i know James has a background as a defender but he's been playing as a winger the past 5 years had they call-up another CB, perhaps Santiago of Pachanga or Gould of Loyola, it would have been more realistic than putting Carli at the center of the defense I think its time to have a young CB,Juani and Rob are getting old. Maybe its time to train Carli at that position and try Barbaso at RB and add one from the UFL. Enough of the JDJ experiment at CB he's okay as a holding mid. I hope that our next friendlies will.be featured by some youngsters from the UFL,especially at the back.
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Post by strikerbon on Jun 5, 2013 12:29:43 GMT 8
yes UFL help our players to be in a good form but im quite sad with the selection knowing that some of the players cannot finish the whole 90 minutes and some were also not 100%. imagine if Barbaso was there, he would have been a better option at RB rather than dropping James because Barbaso is a natural defender. i know James has a background as a defender but he's been playing as a winger the past 5 years had they call-up another CB, perhaps Santiago of Pachanga or Gould of Loyola, it would have been more realistic than putting Carli at the center of the defense I think its time to have a young CB,Juani and Rob are getting old. Maybe its time to train Carli at that position and try Barbaso at RB and add one from the UFL. Enough of the JDJ experiment at CB he's okay as a holding mid. I hope that our next friendlies will.be featured by some youngsters from the UFL,especially at the back. let's wait on the upcoming U23 friendly and see if they have scouted a few good players that are not playing in the UFL.
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Post by johnmarki on Jun 5, 2013 13:00:14 GMT 8
I don't claim to be a football expert. This is just my opinion,I'm still a fan of the azkals.From my observation, possession has always been our problem. It's like deja vu, watching their matches. Bad first touches, passes and etc.. The thing is we can't keep the ball. In majority of football matches,possession is the key to winning. With possession you can have many chances to score. Also with this constant long ball. I mean did Coach Weiss or the players learned that if they do that often, they can only be "dispossessed". It's like I read how they play. "Pass to the back, then long ball". It's funny to know that majority of these guys got their football education in europe and european football always taught "possession" to their players. Yet they can't even keep the ball. The truth is I'm disgusted as a fan, it seems like they never learn.It can't be denied, that win was pure luck. Cheers to Neil, I think that he does his job well.
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Post by buddha on Jun 5, 2013 13:34:30 GMT 8
I beg to differ, johnmarki, on two things you mentioned: 1. "...possession is key to winning." 2. "european football always taught 'possession' to their players"
Possession is NOT the key to winning because statistics are heavy on goals scored via direct play (long ball, if you will) and there are actual studies on this. Neither does European football always teach possession as is obvious by the variety of football styles across a broad sample of European clubs.
In the end, football tactics is simply making use of the resources available to you and the environment you're in. Meaning, it could be that the Philippine national team has to play that way because they don't train on a regular basis, the kind of players they have available to them, the short preparation time, and other myriad factors.
Footballing styles is cultural and culture takes a lot of time to develop. If we stop to consider the fact that "tiki-taka" has been decades in the making then how much longer do you think it will take us when we don't even have a professional league!
I suppose we should be a bit more tolerant when looking at the Philippine team's playing style.
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Post by jyapjoco on Jun 5, 2013 15:35:23 GMT 8
the good dribbling skills of Porteria is negated by his poor passes, one cause maybe would be unfamiliarity with some of his team mates. Greatwich was incredulous with the ref not giving a yellow card with that headbutt, maybe that headbutting player is an admirer of Zidane?
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Post by hongkongfootball on Jun 5, 2013 23:44:54 GMT 8
We at TPOHK have noticed that some reports being circulated in the Philippines and Hong Kong claimed that Hong Kong supporters have shown unruly behavior and handed out racial abuse to the Philippines supporters and players during the recent match between Hong Kong and Philippines. We would like to clarify our positions and state the actual facts. It must first be understood that any match between Hong Kong and Philippines will carry a high level of sensitivity, especially due to the unprofessional handling on the Philippines’ part in the Manila hostage crisis on 23 August 2010, which resulted in the death of 8 innocent Hong Kong tourists. For many people in Hong Kong, the scar still very much remains, especially when the Philippines has yet to offer any substantive apology on this matter. As such, it is unavoidable that emotions will run high in a match like this with this as a background. At the same time, it must also be understood that in matches where emotions and tensions run high, supporters may make unpleasant chants towards opposition players, staff and supporters. However TPOHK has never called for jeering during the national anthem of Philippines, and it also does not condone the throwing of missiles onto the pitch. However, given the situation, where there was also constant provocation coming from the Philippines players and supporters, it is wrong to point fingers only at the Hong Kong supporters. In fact, we would like to point out that when the match was ongoing, many Philippines supporters, donning the Philippines national team jersey and scarfs, came towards the Hong Kong supporters section to taunt the Hong Kong supporters with jeers and hand gestures, which served only to provoke. At the end of the match, several Philippines players (most noticeably players number 4 and number 17) also showed provocative hand gestures towards the Hong Kong supporters. In our opinion, this is utmost childish and unprofessional, and we believe Hong Kong supporters who were seated next to the Philippines supporters section were behaving under provocation. This, unfortunately though expectedly, was not mentioned in the reports. TPOHK would like to highlight that in past occasions where foreign supporters came to Hong Kong, there were chants on the both sides to undermine the players on the field – and sometimes some of these chants may not be the most pleasant for hearing, but after the match, friendship is born among these supporters. In previous visits of supporters from other countries and regions, including Singapore and Chinese Taipei, supporters from both sides were able to befriend one another after the game. Even in the previous home game against Malaysia, in which Hong Kong was beaten 3-0 by the visitors, there was no issue whatsoever. So clearly, “creating friendship” was never on the agenda of the Filipino supporters. We would also like to express our anger and disappointment towards the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) which is the agency managing the Mong Kok Stadium for their repeated incompetency. In such a highly emotionally-charged game, these agencies have failed to take preemptive risk assessment and set up a designated zone for Philippines supporters. Instead the agencies loosely allowed them to sit wherever they wish to. It only took one small spark to trigger a big conflict. Both sets of supporters were not being segregated at all, and it was no wonder that skirmishes eventually did break out, especially when there were so much provocations going on. It is alarming to see that the HKFA and the LCSD are still handling international matches in such an amateurish manner, despite the claim that it is progressing under the Project Phoenix. At the same time, we are highly disturbed by the fact that the online version of a leading English newspaper in Hong Kong has decided to cover the story only from the Filipino’s side of the story and not the Hong Kong’s side. It is indeed regrettable that this newspaper would rather highlight the apparent negative actions on the part of the Hong Kong fans, while completely neglecting the provocation the Hong Kong supporters were also receiving. We always hold in high regards professionals in the media industry, hoping that they would provide a balanced viewpoint, but apparently this English newspaper has failed to do so, and it is indeed regrettable. What is more disappointing is that the report chose to use posts on social media site to be the source of the story. To sensationalize a story by being blatantly biased for one side and try to generalize Hong Kong people as being racist is, in our opinion, rather unprofessional and we consider it unfortunate that in order to attract readership, the paper has chosen to run this story this way. TPOHK would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our stand. We support the Hong Kong representative team and we do so by singing, chanting, waving flags and displaying banners. We seek to build friendship with opposition supporters and do not condone any acts of hooliganism and racism. Should the HKFA be launching investigations on the so-called racism claims, we would be happy to provide assistance. But at the same time, we call for a fair and complete investigation which aims to find out the whole truth, instead of being biased and judgmental towards any one of the parties involved.
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Post by jpmanahan on Jun 6, 2013 4:28:43 GMT 8
On the website where this statement is posted, there is a photo of TPOHK members holding a black banner denoting an event that has nothing to do with football at all.
Now imagine if HK played China on the same day, then someone from HK brandished a Tiananmen Square banner. It's something like that.
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Post by Wiking on Jun 6, 2013 13:39:16 GMT 8
STOP with the "bad weather" reasons again, the opponent played under the same condition and the same pitch too so the point is moot. I actually slept at 4am after the game as I watched the replay twice trying to figure out why and how badly we played. I'd like to get my blog going again and write more of my observations then but in a nutshell: Phil was stymied because no one really passed to him. His main strength is receiving the ball at a reasonable distance and taking it in, he did not receive much from his teamates. Starting Shrocky as a forward(or CAM, he was all over the place) was a bad idea. He was all over the place and I mean ALL OVER. Yes he is a superior player but he was alone in his plays(I'll expound on this later). Mulders played better than Greatwich but only by a bit(on the defense side mainly). Want to know why we gave up so many attempts at goal? WE COULD NOT KEEP THE BALL FROM THE OPPONENT. Mulders and Greatwich are "one touch" passers and refused to keep the ball and make a play or deferred to Schrock when it was time to set up a play. By the way, don't hang Mulder and Greatwich yet, they had a very good passing completion and lane cutting/interception rate(*more on this later). Mulders looked winded when he was replaced. From what I saw performance wise I would've kept him in and replaced Greatwich. As I said in my pregame post a few pages back James is still deserving of that starting spot even with the emergence of Patrick Reichelt. And who says height isn't an advantage in soccer? I also mentioned Chieffy sitting after a certain time, I was right he was replaced by Bahadoran at the beginning of the 2nd half. I thought the coach replaced him too soon. Did anyone notice that when Chieffy was replaced almost the whole 2nd half plays went through the right side and the middle through Stephan? At least Chieffy can actually bring the ball from midfield and take a goal shot confidently. The team gave up on the left once Caligdong left. As a whole, in the first half Gier and Juani were not in their optimum position, meaning quite a number of crosses went by them which they typically could have stopped any other day. Juani's yellow that resulted in the Penalty was justified. He did foul the HK player. This is the second time he gave up a penalty. The first was against Bahrain last year. Don't get me wrong, I'd go to battle with this guy at CB anytime! CENTER BACK DEPTH! We have none and if you think Juani's foul was bad imagine if that was de Jong(Coach get a real CB!) de Murga and Christiaens: despite being under siege the entire game, they still found a way to attack on offense. I saw a few lapses but I truly believe it was the Center Mid play that caused this fiasco. BUT WAIT! The true blame, I think, I'd lay on our coach's feet. His roster was great on paper but there was no coherent GAMEPLAN! I don't know about you but it seemed Weiss put Schrock(a natural defender and winger) at the CAM position and told him to take the ball and go all over the place with it!? There were no subtleties, no strategy, even his substitution seemed untimely at times(While the HK coach substitution made their team stronger as the game went on as seen in the 11 shots on goal in the 2nd half!!). I think we can commend the Azkal players for batting down the hatches and withstanding the HK onslaught AND finding a way to win DESPITE the coach. We CANNOT win all the games when we are outplayed like this by a team lesser or just about our equal! We cannot hope for a heroic player every game. To be honest we played better against Bahrain and Kuwait in our middle east friendlies last year and those were truly superior teams! Neil Etheridge: I never warmed up to this guy for the simple reason he does things on the pitch thats just downright juvenile(the red card in Challenge Cup 2012, Against Myanmar this year when he ran over the opponent who was previously arguing with Gier{or was that Carli?). His flubbed kick in the 1st half(which has happened before, the best/worse one was against Ingolstadt in 2011), mistakes like that is beneath an EPL player even if just a 3rd stringer. But Neil certainly showed his supreme quality in this game. Kudos to the most deserving MOtM! Hong Kong: I predicted a 1-0 win, but I thought we'd win it convincingly not through the heroics of our GK! This HK team was a worthy opponent, strong, rough, relentless and capable. They AREN'T as "FIT" as one would think, it was the coach whose timely substitution that made it seem that they were. Their subs were very good and their gameplan showed clearly. They played pressure defense and a very quick counter while Weiss strategy seemed to be "Give the ball to Schrock"! In the 2013 match against Myanmar, the game/team situation was almost identical except they weren't as good as HK now and the hero was OJP. IT IS TIME FOR THE AZKALS TO HAVE AN X and O's Coach. Weiss idea of getting better as a team is to get better players from abroad. And he wonders why he previously got a 6 month contract(yes I know he received his 12 month extension). I hope the Hong Kong FA takes this defeat as a challenge and invite us to another friendly. This time we should play in the Philippines. This way we can show them what 'CLASS' really means and how truly 'GRACIOUS' a host we can be! Take the challenge Hong Kong FA! Let's play!
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Post by strikerbon on Jun 7, 2013 8:04:40 GMT 8
Dan Palami together with three players from the Azkals were interviewed in Punto for Punto in Umagang kay ganda a while ago. they tackled the things happened in the recent friendly match but didn't talk about the racism issue and the banner thingy. it's good to hear Carli speaking tagalog by the way here's the video of what happened after the game credit to the owner of the video
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Post by stellarboy on Jun 7, 2013 8:27:56 GMT 8
Dan Palami together with three players from the Azkals were interviewed in Punto for Punto in Umagang kay ganda a while ago. they tackled the things happened in the recent friendly match but didn't talk about the racism issue and the banner thingy. it's good to hear Carli speaking tagalog by the way here's the video of what happened after the game credit to the owner of the video The team can't speak much about the racism and banner thingy because they aren't allowed to talk about them until the report of the PFF comes out. Just standard PR protocol, although Anthony.Taberna had to hint the issue of the hostage crisis on his wrap-up.
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Post by Caz on Jun 7, 2013 12:39:46 GMT 8
Man what a wasted period for friendlies. Perhaps we should have sought matches outside of Asia. USVI? Canada? Israel?
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Post by narko on Jun 7, 2013 15:52:10 GMT 8
Man what a wasted period for friendlies. Perhaps we should have sought matches outside of Asia. USVI? Canada? Israel? Israel? That would be a good and tough opponent, note that Israel held Portugal to a draw in a World Cup qualifier. Portugal is playing Russia here tonight and if they lose will be in big trouble and will need to win against Israel here in October to at least ensure a play-off spot. Israel is in contention for the play-off spot as well. Much as I support the Azkals and would like to see them square off with Israel, I think Israel will be looking for stronger opponents for their preparations if they want to go to Brazil next year. Canada is a good option, plenty of Filipinos in Canada as well, so there is a good commercial opportunity for a friendly match. Still, for me the best option is the Middle East. The large numbers of Filipinos there makes a training camp and friendly matches viable, both in terms of team preparations against a strong opponent and from a commercial standpoint.
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