Beckham, LA Galaxy cap Azkals’ fairytale year

Saturday was probably the biggest night for football in the Philippines. While it’s still a tossup whether it’s because of the match against LA Galaxy or because of David Beckham, it was clear that the sport has gone miles beyond what the players themselves could have expected. “Last year, I wouldn’t even think that we’d be playing Beckham today,” said Phil Younghusband who scored the Philippines’ lone goal.

Back in December 2010, people barely knew the Azkals. Now they’re playing with the MLS champions. Never mind that it was a 6-1 loss to the best team in the United States right now. Despite the heavy rains and expensive tickets, Rizal Memorial Stadium was packed save for a very small portion in the bleachers. Worth the ticket Aside from the fact that the fans saw goals from Beckham, Robbie Keane, Mike Magee and Adam Cristman, it was equally amazing to watch the Azkals strut their stuff on the pitch. “Sabi ko sa teammates ko, mamaya na picture taking. Laro muna,” said Chieffy Caligdong who stood in as captain since Aly Borromeo was injured. From the defenders to Chris Greatwich who made a comeback, his teammates delivered. Phil Younghusband showed why he’s the first scoring option for the Philippines as he made our only goal at the 41st minute. Although he was shorter than everybody else on the field, Caligdong had a lot of good attempts that simply lacked finishing touches. Ed Sacapano took the goal-keeping reins from Neil Etheridge, successfully clearing out at least six goals. The defense line of the Azkals was rock solid in the early minutes. And of course, Jason De Jong was still the bad boy of the night as he almost got into a heated exchange with one of the Galaxy’s players. At one point, he even bumped Beckham hard to steal the ball. The David Beckham When the football superstar scored the opening goal at the 20th minute, the crowd went berserk. One fan even tweeted that his 2,000-peso ticket could be broken down into 1,995 pesos for Beckham and five pesos for each of the other goals. And Beckham did play with quality. He passed the ball with extreme accuracy. Two of LA Galaxy’s other goals also came off a pass from him. While rumors circulated that he would only be playing for a short time, he was actually fielded for a good 70 minutes. After he was subbed out, he handed his jersey to boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. The fans at the grandstand got a little bit disappointed that he didn’t throw his jersey for a free-for-all, but only until they realized that they were getting to see Beckham shirtless. Bad publicity? For all the good things the Dream Cup was, did it really serve the Azkals well?  “We have to ask ourselves if this is the kind of promotion we want,” said Coach Michael Weiss in a press conference after their 1-6 loss. “Playing against Beckham is one thing. But we have to get our best team together and play well to promote football here,” he added. While he lauded the boys’ performance in the first half, he admitted that the team crumbled in the second half. Even the set pieces weren’t executed well. Weiss also mentioned that many players dropped their energy levels after 60 minutes of play. However, LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena thought the Azkals were well-organized defensively. He added that he was impressed by Angel Guirado, Phil Younghusband and Chieffy Caligdong. “I think they played well. They’re dangerous in the final third of the field,” he said. Even team captain Landon Donovan agreed, “The players here are a little more talented and more organized. They threatened us more than the Indonesians.” Next stop: possibly Real Madrid The Azkals will resume training in early January for the AFC Challenge Cup. They will have two and a half months to prepare for the next competition. “We’ll work very hard to get the professional players. But we also have locals here and if there are some players who can’t commit to the team, then I’ll find somebody else,” said Weiss. Other tune up matches are also in the talks including big names like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, said Phil Younghusband. Even veteran coach Arena said that it’s going to take a lot of time and effort to produce a team as strong as those of football countries like Brazil and Spain. “It takes many years to develop a good national team,” said Arena, noting that even the U.S. struggled before. “My advice to the Philippines is just to work hard, chase your dreams, and one day it will happen,” he ended. - OMG, GMA News