Uzbekistan U23 blanks Philippines in Dubai friendly

Monday, February 13, 2012

THE Philippines dropped its first tuneup match, 3-0, to the Uzbekistan Under 23 in Dubai last Saturday.

The national team is in the Middle East for a training camp to prepare for the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup in Nepal next month and will play two more friendlies against Australia under 23 and a local club.

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Kenja Turaev caught a sleeping Philippine defense in the 12th minute to sneak in the first goal past Roland Mueller and Ivan Nagaev made it 2-0 in the 42nd.

The Philippines had their best chance in the second half after a buildup led to an Angel Guiardo header, but the Uzbek keeper easily collected the shot.

In the 65th, Nagaev collected his second goal to make it 3-0.

Despite the loss, coach Michael Weiss is optimistic.

“It is a defeat that doesn’t harm us because we are planning to be strong on March 9 in our opening match,” Weiss told sport360.com.

The Philippines will face defending champion North Korea on March 9, 2008 champion India on March 11, and 2006 champion Tajikistan on March 13.

The Philippines failed to qualify for the main stage in the 2008 and 2010 editions of the tournament.

“We fielded younger players in the first half and a lack of coordination and a few mistakes from us got punished severely and quickly, but the spirit of the group was great,” coach Weiss said. “Our problem is we don’t have enough training time together.

We have to link better and there must be more support from the midfielders. I see this match as a way of learning to reach the highest level in Asia. A few years back, they would have scored even more and we should put things in the right context.”