The second match of the AFF Suzuki Cup tonight has Philippines, the host country, taking the Lions, Singapore. Both Dooley’s and V.Sundramoorthy’s side looked eager and ambitious to snag the win.
It started out as a promising match between the two, both teams had their edge and key players. Fifteen minutes into the game and both sides had almost equal possession of the ball, Philippines had 47% and Singapore had 43%. Even the attack and defence was balanced on each side.
But, instead of goals, we saw a tonne of free kicks, men going down, fouls and yellow cards.
Of course, the biggest impact of the game was at the 34th minute when Hafiz Abu Sujad was shown a red card when his leg inadvertently landed on Philippines’ captain, Phil Younghusband’s upper chest. Phil went down and Hafiz was shown the way out of the pitch, his face displaying a perplexed look.
We thought it was game over for Singapore, and maybe Philippines will destroy them with a string of goals. But no, the game carried on with the pace. Both sides pushing hard to score, both taking shots and going wide or over the bar.
Perhaps it was because the goalkeepers did such a good job, both Muller and Hassan Sunny made some incredible saves in the game and denied their opposition of any possible goals.
The hosts almost netted a goal via Hikaru Minegishi’s effort, but Hassan Sunny would not allow that to happen in his presence. Philippines went on to test Singapore’ defences, but to no avail.
Eventually, both sides, including the fans, had to accept the fact that it was going to be nothing more than a draw.
Here are the current standings after today’s AFF Suzuki Cup games:
Watch the match highlights here:
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