DESPITE fighting tooth and nail, the Philippines and Yemen eventually settled for a scoreless standoff yesterday at the start of Group B action in the third round of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers at the MFF Football Center in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Neither the Azkals nor the Qahtanite Arabs, Yemen’s moniker, could make any headway against the stout defense put up by both sides and earned a point each in the four-team, single-round series where the group topnotcher books a ticket to next year’s AFC Asian Cup.
Fil-British goalkeeper and team skipper Neil Etheridge and Yemeni counterpart Salem Gamal Al-Harsh were kept on their toes in the face of the sporadic attacks of their respective opponents.
With American-German Thomas Dooley calling the shots anew, the Pinoy booters had better ball possession for most of the first half and had more tries — 6-2 — but could not translate the edge to goals.
