WITH an eye for revenge and displaying glimpses of its potential under new Spanish coach Albert Capellas, the Philippines trounced Tajikistan 3-0 last Monday night to bag the bronze medal in the King’s Cup tournament at the Tinsulanond Stadium in Songkhla, Thailand.
In an action-packed and highly entertaining match, the Filipino footballers were dominant in avenging their 3-4 loss by penalty shootout to the Tajiks in the Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last month while snapping a 10-game winless streak of eight defeats and two draws.
Back wearing a Philippine jersey after a two-year absence, Fil-German Geritt Holtmann started the ball rolling with a left-footed 30-yard blast in the 47th minute, the ball slipping through the fingers of Tajik goalkeeper Rustam Yatimov and into the net.
Defender Jefferson Tabinas doubled the lead with a header off a right corner kick in the 58th minute before Fil-American forward Zico Bailey made his first goal for the Pinoy booters four minutes later, looping the ball inside the box past the defense to seal the deal.
Goalkeeper Kevin Mendoza also shared the spotlight, keeping a clean sheet, as the charges of Capellas bounced back from a 1-3 loss to host Thailand last week after keeping the War Elephants at bay in the first half of their opening match.
“I am very happy with our first half performance (against Thailand) and even happier with the way we performed tonight,” Capellas said at the post-match conference in the company of Bailey.
“We took another step forward in playing the game with maturity. I credit the players for working together. It has been amazing how quickly they are able to pick up everything, which means they have a lot of talent,” the Spanish tactician said, beaming. “I hope we can play more like these in future games.”
Bailey was delighted that he was able to score a goal for the country and proud of the way he and his teammates played against the powerhouse Tajik squad.
“When we wear this jersey we give our 100 percent, to show that we wear it with pride. That we will fight for our country to win every single time. Today showed that quality,” Bailey said.
“We are still building chemistry and trying to learn the concepts that coach Albert wants to implement, and I think today we showed that,” he added.
Capellas added there was still much work to be done, saying: “We have to be more efficient in certain aspects of the game that you can control to sustain momentum.”
