Perth Glory noses Azkals out in Vigan friendly

After a closely-fought opening half, visiting Australian A-League side Perth Glory FC pulled off two goals in the second to overcome the young iteration of the Philippine men’s football team, Tuesday night at the Quirino Stadium in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.

The Australian club attempted to break the deadlock at the start of the match, but they dealt with the solid defense of the Azkals behind center backs Amani Aguinaldo and Simone Rota. Andrew Keogh has started to become dangerous for Perth Glory and could have gotten one in at the 12^th minute, if he was not called offside.

The Azkals were not devoid of opportunities themselves. At the 28^th minute, Shirmar Felongco, who mde his starting debut for the senior team, made a rousing run on the right flank, but was stopped by the defense. Misagh Bahadoran then connected to Dennis Villanueva five minutes after; nonetheless, the visitors snuffed the chance as well.

After one missed chance from either side at the dying minutes of the period, both squads found themselves still on level terms at the break.

At the onset of the period, the Philippines had a golden chance to score after Bahadoran was taken down on the right wing. Skipper Phil Younghusband, however, was denied on the ensuing free kick, and thereafter, was taken down as well on the same flank. Rota almost scored on the following set piece, but hits the ball just slightly over the bar.

Perth Glory had enough of it and had a chance at the 56th minute. Taylor Tombides was open in the left edge of the box, but the shot was too strong. Eleven minutes after that, Joe Knowles would not be denied from the same spot and finally got the first goal of the night. This time, the goal scorer pushed the ball towards the middle and sent a grounder past Azkals keeper O’Donnell for the 1-0 lead.

Mitch Oxborrow tried to double the lead at the 80^th minute, but his shot coming off a nice build up play was inches off the target.

The Azkals, with young upstarts and substitutes Daniel Gadia, Ashley Flores, and Jinggoy Valmayor, had a decent shot at a late equalizer after some nifty passing as well. Only Valmayor’s final touch went too wayward and could not bother Perth Glory’s keeper Nicholas Feeley.

The game has gone into the final minutes, but Perth Glory still plucked some chances. And at added time, Richard Garcia finished the match with a quick shot off a corner to seal the A-League squad’s undefeated run in their Philippine visit.