A minute away from a crucial and morale-boosting win, the Philippines wound up with a third straight heartbreaking 1-1 draw against a rattled Vietnam squad late Wednesday night in their riveting AFF Mitsubishi Group B match at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Newlywed striker Jarvey Gayoso, who missed the away game against Laos after getting married over the weekend, provided the spark for the embattled Filipinos, coming off the bench in the second half to score a left-footed strike from 15 yards in the 68th minute in front of the penalty box.
From a scoreless deadlock at the half, Gayoso’s go-ahead goal sent the predominantly hometown fans of over 3,000 at the historic arena screaming with delight in what would have been the country’s first win over Vietnam in 12 years.
But with victory within grasp for the charges of Spanish coach Albert Capellas, Vietnamese midfielder Doan Ngoc Toan spoiled it all, sneaking from behind the left flank of the Philippine defense for a point-blank header off a right corner kick with barely a minute left in injury time.
The outcome left the Vietnamese clinging to the top spot in the group with seven points, virtually ensuring them a spot into the crossover semifinals, while the hosts were left ruing what might have been as they slipped to fourth place with a meager three points.
Myanmar nipped Laos 3-2 in the other group match at the Thuwunna Stadium in the Burmese city of Yangon to wheel into a tie for second place with idle Indonesia, both with identical four points each and equal on goal difference.
The Filipinos need nothing less than a victory over the Indons in their last match tomorrow at the Manahan Stadium in Surakarta, Indonesia and hope the Vietnamese either beat or draw with the Burmese at the Viet Tri Stadium in Viet Tri Province in the other game, capping group play.
At the post-match press conference, Capellas was proud of how his squad played the vaunted Vietnamese side, saying: “Today was a different game. Today was a 50-50 game. It was more of a battle.”
But he also noted that fatigue might set in for his wards, who have fought in three matches, including one away game in Laos, in a week.
“We have to keep longer ball possession because when we put five passes between lines, we shouldn’t have lost, if we could do that on the last five-seven minutes, we shouldn’t have lost. But we are tired, the team was so tired, but they gave whatever they could,” Capellas said.
Gayoso and goalkeeper Patrick Deyto, who had kept the hosts very much in the game with his timely saves, told media in the same briefing that they remained unfazed despite the setback.
“We are still positive. We told ourselves technically the most important game is the Indonesia game, and if you look at the table sila ‘yung importanteng kalaban. So a loss, a win, or a draw, sila ‘yung importanteng match namin,” said Gayoso, assuring everyone that he would be in Indonesia.
“So ang focus lang namin is recovery para makalaro kami ng one hundred percent (against Indonesia),” he added.
“We have an important game in the next two days, so we have to focus on the next one right away…Coming into this game we already knew that was gonna be the one — the last game is going to decide the semifinals,” Deyto said with a look of determination on his face.
Capellas exuded calm confidence ahead of their do-or-die match against Indonesia.
“I’m sure they (the players) are one hundred percent motivated. I really think if they fight like they did today and we create the chances that we created also in the other games, I think we have a chance to win the game (against Indonesia),” he said.
“As a coach, I know that they will go there, even without rest, even with only two days off, two days between, I know they will go there and they will fight to try to win and qualify,” he said.
