Global win gives Philippines football reasons to be cheerful
Global FC enjoyed a big win in the AFC Cup on Wednesday when they beat 2015 champions JDT.
by John Duerden
@johnnyduerden
It is only four months since fans in the Philippines were in a state of depression after crashing out at the group stage of the AFF Suzuki Cup despite being co-hosts.
At the Rizal Stadium in downtown Manila at the end of November, Indonesia defeated Singapore to confirm the exit.
Things have changed and have done so at the same atmospheric but aging arena. At the Rizal in March, the Azkals started the final round of qualification for the 2019 Asian Cup with a win over Nepal.
Better came on April 5 – a date that should be circled in football calendars for years to come – as Global FC recorded what must be the best result by a club team in international competition.
The 3-2 win over Johor Darul Ta’zim in the AFC Cup on Wednesday was a big deal.
To start with, JDT are a regional powerhouse. In Southeast Asia at the moment, only the big two of Thailand –the twin Uniteds of Muangthong and Buriram – are in the same league.
The team has won the last three Malaysia Super League titles, the 2015 AFC Cup and reached the last four last year. Off the pitch, it is also a well-oiled machine of the sort that is rare in Asia, never mind the Southeast.
Johor do not expect to lose to a team from the Philippines.
Yet, it was a deserved victory for the hosts. Perhaps the visitors breezed into Manila expecting an easy ride. In the previous round, the two met at the Larkin Stadium with the Malaysians running out easy 4-0 winners.
Heading to Manila, the Southern Tigers rested four players who had lost to Pahang at the weekend (this is a first successive defeat for the team since 2015). Captain Safiq Rahim was one of those benched perhaps in the expectation that they would get the three points that would send them four points clear at the top of the group with two to play.
While the Malaysians were missing their skipper through choice, Global were without theirs through injury as Misagh Bahadoran had a knee problem.
But there can be no excuses for the visitors. In an eight-minute spell of madness, from an away team point of view, JDT were all over the place. Long balls from deep caused all sorts of problems for a defence that was supposed to be well-drilled.
After 27 minutes, Dennis Villanueva put the hosts head, five minutes later Shu Sasaki made it two and it was almost game over when Amani Aguinaldo virtually sealed the win from a counter-attack on the 35 minute-mark. Gabriel Guerra scored twice in the second half but it was too little too late.
The win was deserved. Global looked more threatening on the ball and while there was always going to be serious JDT pressure in the second half, the defence and goalkeeper held firm against an attack that lacked movement and fluency and only really got going when the game was virtually over.
This is the biggest and best result ever recorded by a Filipino club. This is just Global’s second appearance in the competition, with the first coming back in 2015 when JDT ended up winning the whole thing. It shows how far the club has come in such a short space of time.
To defeat JDT, a team that eliminated 2016 Thai Premier League runners-up Bangkok United from the Asian Champions League play-offs after dominating Malaysian football for three years, is a real feather in the twin caps of Global and Philippines club football.
What Global, two points clear at the top, have to do now is secure first place and a spot in the knockout stage. Victory over JDT would end up less sweet if it was followed by dropped points against Cambodia’s Boeung Ket and Magwe from Myanmar.
It would continue the impressive progress made by the country’s clubs in Asia. In 2016, both Ceres and Kaya got to the last 16. Ceres topped a group containing Malaysian and Singapore giants Selangor and Tampines Rovers respectively. Kaya edged out Balestier Khalsa of the S-League.
It all bodes well for the new Philippines Football League that is due to kick off this year. The country’s first fully professional and national club competition has had some teething problems in getting off the ground and uncertainty as to when it will actually start but if it can take the club scene to the next level then the best in Southeast Asia will have a new challenger to worry about.
But until that happens, individual clubs are providing plenty for local fans to be happy about. Ceres and Kaya set the scene in 2016 but Global defeating JDT in a competitive game is a step up.
It is not only the best result in Filipino club history, it offers real hope and optimism for the future.
www.foxsportsasia.com/football/afc-cup/news/detail/item632768/global-win-gives-philippines-football-reasons-to-be-cheerful/