Philippines coach Dooley: We need to look up to Thailand

Philippines national team head coach Thomas Dooley admitted that his team needs to look up to Thailand in the future after losing 1-0 against the War Elephants in the final group match of the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup.

Needing a win to stand a chance of advancing to the semi-finals, The Azkals failed to score against practically the Thai’s bench unit and eventually fell to Sarawat Masuk’s late winner. Their fate was sealed after Indonesia scored a 2-1 win over Singapore to claim the second ticket to the semi-finals.

The results mean co-hosts Philippines finished third in the group A, with just two points from two draw against Singapore and Indonesia. Meanwhile, the Garuda finished second with four points, five behind group leaders Thailand.

“We could have won the game in the first half,” Azkals coach Thomas Dooley rued missed chances after the match. “Today we had many chances, but we couldn’t score.”

“We need to look up to Thailand. They are a great footballing nation. Their second team was still a pretty good team”, he added.

Meanwhile, Thailand coach Kiatisuk was full of praise for his players.

“Today we fielded a lot of rotations players and we showed you our footballers can play. We wanted to show you how professional we are. We aimed to show that we are the real number one in ASEAN, despite the FIFA ranking”, the coach known as Zico told reporters.