Azkals escape ‘group of death’ in SEA Games draw

Thursday, October 20, 2011

THE Philippine men’s football team Azkals clinched a relatively favorable draw for the Southeast Asian Games in November as it improved the country’s chances of cracking its first medal in the 34-year-old tournament.

In its website, the Asean Football Federation (AFF) announced that the Philippines was bracketed in Group B, joining regional powerhouse Vietnam and lightweights Timor Leste, Brunei, Malaysia, and Myanmar.

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Based on the rankings released by the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) on Wednesday, the Philippines jumped eight notches higher to 158 from 166 last May.

This developed after the Azkals finished second in the Fifa-sanctioned Long Teng Cup in Taiwan and the 4-0 thrashing over Nepal in an international friendly match at the Rizal Memorial Stadium two weeks ago.

The football competitions will kick off on November 3 as the Under-23 squad is set to battle university teams in Gotemba, Japan in the next few days to prepare for the regional meet.

Defending champion Malaysia (Fifa rank: 150), meanwhile, leads the cast of Group A participants, alongside Thailand (Fifa rank: 114), Cambodia, (Fifa rank: 176) and Singapore (Fifa rank: 139) in a draw held at the RCTI Studio in West Jakarta on Wednesday.

Lowly regarded for decades, the Philippines has yet to reach the semifinals of the SEA Games football competitions since losing to Singapore in the playoff for the bronze in 1991. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)