By Les Tan/Red Sports
Video copyright of World Sport Group
Hanoi, Sunday, December 5, 2010 — The nation of Vietnam was left stunned after they saw their national team go down 0-2 to unheralded Philippines in their Group B game of the ASEAN Football Championship (AFF Suzuki Cup).
One goal in each half of a match dominated by Vietnam gave Philippines a victory and top spot in their group, leaving them in pole position to qualify for the semi-final stage.
English-born Chris Greatwich, the man who scored the injury-time equaliser against Singapore previously, was on hand to score Philippines’ first in the 38th minute with a soft diving header that the Vietnamese goalkeeper Duong Hong Son somehow could not keep out even though it looked like he had it covered.
With 11 minutes left in the second half, another English-born player, Phil Younghusband, scored the second to end Vietnamese resistance. With the Vietnamese defense shredded, the ex-Chelsea reserve player picked his spot from inside the penalty box to score.
The Philippines’ defensive tactics though left the Vietnam head coach Henrique Calisto frustrated and the Portuguese derided his opponents for it.
“Football is not this, football is not putting eight players in front of the area with no offensive system. They were fighting and I respect the players but if you think this is football then you are wrong,” said Calisto, according to the affsuzukicup.com website.
“My way is different. You can play and lose but you can lose with honour. They put the bus in front of the goal and shoot, shoot, shoot and they pray. They didn’t have an offensive system.
“I told my players that the Philippines defend very well but they don’t care about counterattacking, they only pay attention in defence. Until you score one goal, our job is very difficult and I told the players that.
“If you look at possession of the ball, if you look at shots, if you look at crosses maybe there was 70 or 80 percent for Vietnam and 20 or 30 percent for Philippines.
“If they think they can win the championship based on that then poor football. If the Philippines think they can win playing that way then my dear, poor, poor football in this region.”
His counterpart, Simon McMenemy was as surprised as anyone else at the post-match conference.
“I’m pinching myself, I’m not sure we have done what we have done. I keep thinking I’ll wake up in bed in the Sheraton hotel and we’ll still have the game to play,” said the Englishman on the affsuzukicup.com website.
“We knew we could defend, we knew we were disciplined enough but we didn’t know if we could go up the other end and score goals. We knew that would be our issue so we worked hard in training on simple things like converting breakaways when we are on the run.”
“That was an incredible feat considering they are the Philippines and where they have come from. To go and turnover a powerhouse like Vietnam is incredible.
“We rode our luck throughout the game but I said to the guys at halftime: ‘You have to keep putting yourself in a position for good things to happen to you and you have to keep working hard’.
“If you keep working hard the luckier you get. We had three chances and scored twice. This won’t sink in for quite a while.”
| COUNTRY | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIETNAM | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 6 |
| PHILIPPINES | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| SINGAPORE | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| MYANMAR | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | -7 | 1 |
carlisto talks too much. he deploy ultra defensive systems when facing thai and malaysia before, and now talking like he’s managing man utd.
Calisto is a sour loser. He is afraid of losing his job, lets understand that.
I don’t seem to get coach Calisto. The objective of the game is, to score as many goals as you can, as well as defend your own goal. Philippines chose to play defense by “putting the bus” on their goal. So its up to Calisto to solve on how to take out that “bus”. Just like in basketball, if you play good defense, its more likely that you limit the scores of your opponent.
The Philippine players are either full blooded Filipinos or Half-Filipinos (with English/European) fathers (so as their surnames say). But they are Filipinos. Just like any Singaporeans born with foreign fathers. So the emphasis on “Fil-Foreign” should be taken out.
Some of you are misunderstanding this quote from Calisto:
“They put the bus in front of the goal and shoot, shoot, shoot and they pray.”
It is a common English football expression used to describe defensive teams that park 9-10 players in front of their goal to defend.
It has nothing to do with that infamous hostage bus incident in Manila.
some? i went through the comments and it seems just one person misunderstood it.
Mr. Calisto can’t seem to accept defeat. And sir, what nerves do you have to talk about HONOR. Sir, is it honorable not to shake hands with your opponents after the game? Where’s sportsmanship? Do you even know the word?
Well if your saying that foot ball is poor in this region, yeah your somewhat right. Why not work harder to make ASEAN teams more competitive and FIFA WC material?
huhuhuhu.. poor Calisto, stop like being a child! YOU WERE SOOO OVERCONFIDENT that you lose your guard to a poor and not-so-known players in the football arena.. Guys, its really hard to accept the fact that someone you dont expect happen to you especially that he criticizes Phils.. hahahaha whats the bus has to do with a 2-0 score???? sourgraping.. nyehehehe sourgrapng.. nyehehehe the whole world saw how you snobbed your opponents’ shakehands.. is that the art of sportsmanship your talking about??? walk the talk sir! Maybe the Vietnamese thinks of kicking your ass now as their national coach… time to change Vietnam, cant you believ it?? its 2-0 man.. 2-0 MABUHAY! we love you Mr. Calisto, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
calisto is such a sore loser. now that is not what football, and definitely not what sport, is all about. he is the one who just shoot shoot shoot, talk talk talk, for what? to cover his ass lah!
In football, goal wins the game not the passing or how long you posses the ball. Azkals pass the ball to the right person plus good play delivery, plus good goal keeper. Vietnam take the underdogs lightly,over confident after 7 goals with myanmar and the coach have no answer for the Azkals defence.
P.S.
What’s with the English born you almost double quote it. Phil and Chris are English born but Filipino blood runs in their veins.
what’s up with the bus, shoot and pray analogy, calisto? that incident cost lives. this is football. let’s keep it in the sporting realm, shall we?
Excuses, excuses…
If its not against the any rules then dont complain like SG…
sour grapes senor calisto…you got outfoxed and outgunned by a non-football nation and your busy screaming “art” for the sake of your job…the azkals are here and theyve come to win..thhis is not the philippines of old..
“Football is not this, football is not putting eight players in front of the area … “. Sorry Mr Calisto, as bad as the formation looks, it was effective for us. What a sorry excuse to lose in front of adoring fans.