Azkals, Tigers fight to a scoreless draw for fourth time in a row

CEBU, Philippines - Not even the huge support of home crowd could pull the Philippine Azkals through that elusive win over the Malaysia Tigers.

For the fourth consecutive time since 2012, the Azkals and the Tigers fought to a scoreless draw in their well-attended international friendly match billed as “Face Off 2” last night at the Cebu City Sports Center.

Rookie goalkeeper Patrick Deyto became the Azkals’ saving grace when he stopped a penalty goal of Mohd Safee Mohd Sali to close the match in another stalemate. Malaysia was awarded a penalty kick due to a handball inside the box.

Malaysia head coach Kim Swee Datuk Ong said the match was very different from their previous meeting last March 1 in Kuala Lumpur.

"The Philippines played better in terms of moving the ball and their level of confidence is good motivated by the crowd. They pushed us very hard, but the boys defended well," Datuk Ong said.

In particular, Datuk Ong said he was impressed with the way Jason de Jong, Martin Steuble and Deyto played.

Despite the praise, Datuk Ong noted the lack of mental sharpness which caused them to miss scoring goals.

Azkals coach Thomas Dooley, for his part, said he is very happy with the performance of the team especially the many attempts that they created in the first half.

            The Azkals started out hot, aggressively attacking the goal with three attempts in just the first 10 minutes of play courtesy of Martin Steuble, Ruben Doctora and Patrick Reichelt.

The Azkals fired as much as 10 attempts in the first half, while the Tigers had three that were all foiled by Patrick Deyto.

The Azkals displayed good  ball control in the first half and created so many chances inside the box, but could not finish off a goal mainly because of miscommunications between James Younghusband and Jose Elmer Porteria.

The Azkals were not as aggressive in the second half as their Malaysian opponents outran them and this time, dictated the pace of the match.

The closest the Azkals could have scored came on two back-to-back attempts by Nathan Burkey, who came in for Jose Elmer Porteria. ---/ebv (FREEMAN)