RP booters triumph

The setting could not have been more perfect.
On the same field where they suffered a heart-breaking defeat last year, the Philippine Football Team redeemed itself and accomplished its goal of gaining a slot in the Asean Football Championships, after a clinical beating of Brunei, 4-1, yesterday at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod City.
The win comes as a welcome development for the country’s football program, which has been often overshadowed by the extreme popularity of basketball and battered by criticism for a string of disappointing results in international competitions. The losses have sent the Philippines down to 195 in the world football rankings, the second-worst among Southeast Asian countries.
“We would not have accomplished our goal (to qualify) without the support of the crowd,” national coach Aris Caslib said.
The Filipino booters played to a crowd of 18,000 in a 1-2 setback to Laos. About 12,000 witnessed them blank Timor Leste, 7-0, Tuesday. Last Saturday, 15,000 cheered for them on their way to a narrow 1-0 win over Cambodia.
The Philippines has been drawn with three-time winner Thailand, Myanmar, and Malaysia in Bangkok from Jan. 12 to Feb. 3, 2007.
“We wanted to give something back to our supporters after falling short last year,” Caslib said, referring to their Southeast Asian Games debacle last year.
Playing before a crowd of about 20,000, the Filipinos squandered a one-goal lead and fell to Malaysia, 2-4, in Nov. 29, 2005, eliminating them from the SEAG.
But the Philippines was not to be denied a glorious ending barely a year later as Fil-British striker Phil Younghusband, US-based Anton del Rosario and Iloilo-born winger Emelio Caligdong joined forces to take the sting out of the Brunei side.
Despite only needing a draw to qualify, the Filipinos attacked without let-up right from the opening whistle and were rewarded by Del Rosario’s beautifully-struck free kick from 30 yards that ricocheted off the post and into goal in the 25th minute.
Extreme pressure in front of the Brunei goal in the 54th minute saw Younghusband volley home his saved header to double the lead.
"The boys did everything to win. They are the players who wanted to change the image of Philippine football," Caslib said.
Caligdong’s opportunistic strike in the 73rd minute gave the RP booters an unassailable 3-0 advantage, before Younghusband struck again from just outside the box nine minutes from time.