The Philippine Azkals received a reality check as they suffered a 2-3 upset at the hands of Chinese Taipei on Monday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, in front of 3,758 fans.
Michael Weiss’ men, who are ranked 136th in the world, were leading at the end of the first half. However, Chinese Taipei (ranked 156th in the world) managed to secure the victory with a late goal by substitute Ming-wei Lin.
After an initial save from goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, Ming-wei Lin reacted quickly and found the back of the net in the 90th minute.
It was an unfortunate end for Weiss’ team, which had a promising start to the match. Wu Yen-shu’s deflected free kick beat Etheridge just two minutes into the contest, but Mike Ott won a penalty in the 13th minute and successfully converted it to equalize.
Patrick Reichelt then gave the Azkals the lead in the 39th minute with a fantastic finish past opposition goalkeeper Wen-Chieh Pan.
However, Chinese Taipei managed to equalize in the 57th minute. Yao-hsing Yu scored the visitors’ equalizer with an assist from Geon-Myeong Wang, and Ming-wei Lin’s late winner completed a five-goal thriller.
The loss left the Azkals lamenting their inability to maintain their lead.
“It was an absolute deserved win for Chinese Taipei,” said Weiss. “Nevertheless, I think the potential is really there. If this group is fit, if these players who had to pull out last minute (return), we’ll see a different group.”
“Please don’t be disappointed. I think we can see many, many more positives in the next September, October and November windows.”
Philippines XI: Etheridge (GK) (C), Linares, Ott, Reyes, Porteria, Sato, De Murga, Gayoso, De Bruycker, Curran, Reichelt.
Chinese Taipei XI: Pan (GK), Fong, T Chen, R Wang, Y Wu, Estevez Tsai, C Wu (C), C Chen, C Yu, G Wang, Y Yu.
