Members of the Philippines national team have exhorted fans to fill the 30,000-capacity Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila when they take on three-time ASEAN champions Thailand in the first leg of the Suzuki Cup semifinal on Saturday.
Team manager Dan Palami was quoted by the AFF Suzuki Cup website as making an impassioned appeal to the Azkals' supporters through the local media. "We badly need our 12th man on Dec. 6," said Palami. "Football fans, let's rally behind the big flag with drums and chants cheering the Azkals on. If you're a Filipino, be there at Rizal, wear white and let us show them that Filipino fans can also be a factor when it comes to deciding the big games."
"We badly need our 12th man on Dec. 6," said Palami. "Football fans, let's rally behind the big flag with drums and chants cheering the Azkals on. If you're a Filipino, be there at Rizal, wear white and let us show them that Filipino fans can also be a factor when it comes to deciding the big games."
Though this is their third successive Suzuki Cup semifinal, Philippines have played just one semifinal match in front of their own fans in the elite ASEAN tournament. That game was against eventual champions Singapore in 2012, a first leg encounter which ended in a goalless draw. The Azkals were defeated 1-0 in the second leg in Singapore.
Philippines played both legs of the 2010 semifinals in Jakarta.
Azkals' winger Misagh Bahadoran -- who started all three of his country's Group A matches in Hanoi -- supported Palami. "We always give our 100 percent. But if we see and hear our fans cheering for us, we put in 110 percent," Bahadoran told the AFF Suzuki Cup website.
The second leg will be played on Dec. 10 at Bangkok's Rajamangala Stadium. This was the venue of Thailand's second title triumph in 2000, which was inspired by the on field brilliance of incumbent coach Kiatisuk 'Zico' Senamuang, then the country's star striker.
If Philippines are to reach the final at Thailand's expense, they will have to rewrite the record books having lost to the War Elephants in every one of their last 14 games stretching back to 1972. Six of those were in the elite ASEAN competition. Senamuang, who won the title three times as a player, scored in the 1996 and 2000 encounters.
Kiatisuk said that his attack-minded team, who scored seven goals in their group stage victories over defending champions Singapore, 2010 winners Malaysia and qualifiers Myanmar in Group B, would not be cowed down on Saturday in front of a hostile away crowd.
"We will not go to Manila to play for a draw," Kiatisuk told the AFF Suzuki Cup website. "We want to return with a win to make it easy for us in the second leg. If we beat Philippines in the first leg, I am confident that we will reach the final."
Thailand beat the Philippines 3-0 in a warm-up game in Korat last month. Kiatisuk said that the team had watched video footage from the game as well as from the Azkals' group matches in Hanoi against Laos, Indonesia and Vietnam.
"We have studied them from the match in Korat and their first round matches," said Kiatisuk. "They have several tall players with good technique. But our players know how to handle them."