Chieffy steers Azkals to 2-0 win

by Peter Atencio - Manila Standard Today


THE Philippine Azkals surprised Macau with the timely entry in the second half of Chieffy Caligdong, who scored both goals in a 2-0 victory by the Filipinos in the four-nation Long Teng Cup Tuesday at the Kaohsiung national stadium in Taiwan.

Caligdong, who was supposed to rest for the entire match, came in for Fil-German Oliver Potschke and went on the offensive immediately, his heroics allowing the Azkals to score their first win in the tournament against two draws.

The 5’5” wonder from Pototan, Iloilo found his mark in the 51st and in the 82nd minutes to eventually emerge as the tournament’s most prolific scorer with four total goals.

So far, Hong Kong booters Sham Kwok Keung and Wong Chin Hung trail Caligdong with two goals apiece.

The 29-year-old Caligdong received a corner kick from Matthew Hartmann and went for short blast, which goalie Ho Man Wei deflected.

The Filipino crowd went wild as Caligdong stayed ahead of defender Pak Lin Hao and sent the ball back in after he caught the ball on the rebound for his first goal.

Then, Caligdong found another opening on the 87th minute when he got a pass from Hartmann, chesting it to the right post and into the net.

The Azkals, who played without suspended Fil-Spanish booter Angel Guirado, settled for second spot at the end of the 90-minute encounter and they could remain there depending on how the Hong Kong-Chinese Taipei game will finish. Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei both have the same 1-1-0 win-draw-loss records as of presstime.

If Chinese Taipei loses, the Azkals will stay in second. If the two squads draw, the Azkals will end up third.

The Azkals took possession for 71% of the time, but they only had two shots on target out of 10.

The tournament proved to be a good experience for the Azkals, who had some members of the Southeast Asian Games-bound national under-23 team in the roster.

Caligdong, who was rested because of injury in the second half of their game against Chinese Taipei last Saturday, has a total of 13 goals out of 13 international appearances since 2004.

He had two chances to score in the closing minutes, but Ho quickly got in the way in the 87th, while his last try in front of the goal mouth and the keeper went too high.

The Azkals fly to Singapore for their next friendly this Friday and then to Manila for another friendly with Nepal on Monday.