And fatigue took its toll.
The Philippine Azkals bowed down to the host
Bahrain after a 2-nil loss in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers Tuesday, October 13
at the Bahrain National Stadium.
A total of nine days of travel to Pyongyang
and Riffa, Azkals is expected to experience light-headedness and exhaustion.
But Bahrain targeted the backline and started
to elude the feeble-looking defenders. Bahrain let loose a breakaway goal but
Abdulla Yaser quickly fired a weak strike and made the first goal of the match
in favor of the host country.
Azkals Captain Younghusband came back with a
header that barely missed the goal right before the halftime break.
Second half was Bahrain’s time to shine even
more as Ismail Abdullatif capped a nice three-man action with a goal at the
53rd minute and subdued the Phil Younghusband-Martin Steuble strike-cross
team-up.
Bahrain’s second goal came at the 61st minute
when Sayeed Adnan gave a twirling free kick from the left flank. From then on
Azkals had difficulties to goal and ended the games with zero.
To make matters worse, Younghusband received
a yellow card after being tackled. He already incurred his first from the match
against Uzbekistan on September. Consequently, he might miss the next game with
Yemen on November 12.
Even though Bahrain tasted a sweet revenge,
the Philippine booters is still in front at third place in Group H with 2-1-2
win-draw-loss card for seven points. They still have to match-up against Yemen,
Uzbekistan and North Korea to continue with the qualifyers.
This win improved Bahrain’s record to 2-3-0
for six points but stayed at fourth seed.
The World Cup qualifying games allows only
the top four teams to automatically advance to the next round.
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