Before 2010, the Philippines were one of the minnows in South East Asian football. Back then, their participations in the earlier era of the AFF Championship were only “complementary.” In 6 out of 7 participations in the competition between 1996 and 2008, Philippines only won once and collected only 4 points out of possible 63.
But in the 2010 edition, the Philippines changed their players’ recruitment policy. The strategy resulted positively as for the first time ever, they’ve managed to qualify from the Group Stage. They got beaten in the semifinals, though, but still, it was a major success for the archipelagic country’s football. The result came out the same in the 2012 edition.
Needless to say that Philippines’ secret weapons are their naturalized import players. Since 2010, the number of local-born Pinoys in the squad list were depleting. As for the 2014 edition, they used the same strategy and the result was similar with the previous 2 editions. They had the minerals to qualify from Group Stage but unable to reach further than the semifinals.
In the 2014 AFF Championship, the Philippines were drawn in Group A with co-host Vietnam, Indonesia, and Laos. Thomas Dooley, ex-captain of the United States soccer team, led the Philippines into the competition. They easily overcame Laos in the first match with a 4-1 win. The second match was a tricky one against Indonesia, the side that always bullied them in the previous competitions. But this time, they fought back with style and taught Indonesia how to play better football. The Azkals convincingly won 4-0 and be the first participant to book their ticket to the semifinals.
That historic win against Indonesia turned out to be the last for the Philippines in the competition. They lost 1-3 against Vietnam in their final match of the group. The result put them second on the table and faced them with Thailand. They couldn’t take advantage of playing against 10-men Thais in the first leg at home which ended scoreless. In the return leg at Rajamangala Stadium, Thailand put 3 goals through Patrick Deyto without any reply from his teammates. That wrapped up the Philippines’ campaign in the 2014 AFF Championship.
Philippines’ performance in the competition could be analogized as a burned out machine. They scored 8 goals in their first 2 matches, but they ran out of fuel and only managed to score 1 in their last 3 matches. Also, they managed to get conceded only once in the first 2 matches and suffered 6 goals in the 3 subsequent matches.
Throughout 5 matches, the Philippines’ players completed 1,888 passes with 79.6% accuracy. The record put them as the second team with most successful passes, right behind Thailand (2,322).
In terms of aerial battle, Philippines won 269 headers with 75.7% success rate. The number of headers won is no better than Malaysia (376) or Thailand (310), but the header success rate is the highest of all contestants in the competition. Teenage Amani Aguinaldo was Philippines’ player with most number of header won with 41 headers.
Philip Younghusband and Jerry Lucena could be referred to as Philippines’ best-performed players in the competition. While Phil scored 2 goals and made 1 assist, Lucena completed 265 successful passes which is more than any of his teammates, and also made 2 assists.
Here are the more detailed statistical facts on the Philippines in the 2014 AFF Championship (click on image to enlarge).
