Younghusband blames loss to China on fatigue

By Adrian Stewart Co

Defensive play put up by the Philippine men’s football team, the Azkals, against South Korea last week may have come back to haunt them in last Friday’s 3-0 loss to China in the ongoing 2019 AFC Asian Cup in the UAE.
In an interview published on the AFC Asian Cup website, Azkals striker Philip Younghusband said fatigue was evident from the start of the match.
“A lot of the players looked a bit leggy and tired because of the effort put in against Korea,” he explained. “When you are tired and you go 1-0 down after 40 minutes, everything seems a bit further and a bit slower.”
“Against Korea, we were able to keep it at 0-0 until around the 70th minute; with China scoring in the first half, it made things harder for us,” added the Davao Aguilas forward. “You start to chase the equalizer and lose space and discipline – good teams are able to exploit that.”
Despite being out of contention for a top two position in the group and automatic qualification into the Round of 16, the Azkals can still advance if they finish among the top four third-place teams.
“We have to win the next game,” Younghusband said. “It will be a difficult game and they have some players we’ll need to watch out for, but we have time to prepare for all those things./ASC, WDJ