Philippine men’s national football team head coach Albert Capellas has instilled unwavering belief in the Filipino boosters just three months since his appointment at the helm.
The 57-year-old Spaniard has overseen the Nationals in the Merdeka Cup in September followed by their return to the King’s Cup in October before leading the squad to an ongoing semifinal stint in the 2024 Mitsubishi Electric Cup ASEAN Championship.
There, the Philippines is currently making its fifth semifinal appearance count after winning the first of its two-leg series against Thailand, 2-1, to taste sweet victory over the latter for the first time in 52 years since 1972 on Friday night at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
With the job considered half done, Capellas believes that sustained form and newly found morale of the Filipinos will be key in making it all the way to their first championship appearance potentially against Vietnam, which is leading its semifinal showdown against Singapore.
“These players, they really want it. They want to make it to the finals. Now, they are starting to believe in themselves that they can beat any team. And that is very important, that is normal playing against Vietnam in a very close game, you play against Indonesia and Thailand. Now we’ve already proven three games in a row that we can stay in the same level, that means now everything can happen. Football, you never know. But I only know that my team has the belief that we can make it,” Capellas said in a scrum interview.
The Pinoy booters are flying to Bangkok on Sunday to tie up loose ends in their semifinal pairing with the Thais where they look to finish even stronger the following day.
However, Capellas understands that the uphill climb remains just as steep and hard as the Thais will have something to avenge and score to settle in the second leg.
“I know this was a very important game for everyone, for the fans. But in our way of thinking, we’ve only done half of the job. We’ve arrived here and we don’t want to stop. We want to go to the second leg to try to qualify for the finals. I’m sure we’ll work as warriors to make it happen. I don’t have any doubt. And I want to be sure now that the players recover fast. Try to find the balance inside the team, we have a very important game in three days. We have to travel, also Thailand has to travel back. We’ll try to qualify, we’ll do our best,” he detailed.
In the group stage, the Philippines wound up with a 1-3-0 (win-draw-loss) record that saw them concede last-minute goals three consecutive times before keeping a clean sheet through a 1-0 victory over Indonesia that sent them to the semifinal.
This time, it was Kike Linares who came in clutch with a header in stoppage time to make up for the string of heartbreaks that were deemed winnable.
“I always say in the last minute, there’s always one chance for everyone. Tonight it was on our side, sometime it’s on the opposite side. It’s something that always happens. That’s why it’s always important to [be] at the end of the game with two goals ahead. Because there is always a chance [that something like that would happen]. It doesn’t matter how good or bad the game has been, there is always one chance,” he said.
“We need all the support from everybody because this is just the beginning. And we want to be better, and better, and better.”
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
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