Azkals vs Sri Lanka Live Updates

The Philippine Azkals faced Sri Lanka in its first qualifying playoff for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The Azkals (Philippines) vs Sri Lanka football match happened at the Colombo Sugathadasa Stadium with live coverage on Studio 23 which started at 5:20 PM and the game kicked off at 6:30PM.

LIVE SCORE UPDATE: Sri Lanka 1, Philippines 1
Sri Lanka's Chathura Gunarathna scores first goal 4 minutes before 2nd half of the game (41st minute)
Not giving his best performance, Phil Younghusband was replaced by Fil-Am Nate Burkey before halftime.
Burkey scored the first goal for the Philippine Azkals 4 minutes after the 2nd half (at 49th minute). He was later replaced by Ian Araneta.
Azkals' players who got 1 yellow card each were James Younghusband, Stephan Schrock and Aly Borromeo.
Sri Lanka also received 3 yellow cards. One each for Anton Nimal Fernando, Nadeeka Pushpakumara and Safraz Kaiz.
Game ends in a draw with 1 goal each for Sri Lanka and Philippines.

Here's the Philippine Azkals' line-up on today's match vs Sri Lanka:

Team Captain: Aly Borromeo
Goalkeeper: Neil Etheridge
Strikers: Phil Younghusband, Angel Aldeguer Guirado, Misagh Bahadoran, Ricardo Bicete
Midfielders: James Younghusband, Emilio "Chieffy" Caligdong, Manuel Ott, Jerry Lucena, Stephan Schrock, Nate Burkey
Defence: Aly Borromeo, Anton del Rosario, Rob Gier, Ray Jonsson, Roel Gener, Jason Sabio

The Azkals' starting 11 line-up included Etheridge, Borromeo, Gier, Phil and James Younghusband, Caligdong, Guirado, Mulders, Ott, Shrock and Del Rosario while Sabio, Bahadoran, Araneta and Burkey were subsitutes.

Other qualifying matches for Asian countries are also happening simultaneously with the Philippinez vs Sri Lanka June 29 match being held in different venues, such as Cambodia vs Laos, Nepal vs Timor-Leste, Afghanistan vs Palestine, Bangladesh vs Pakistan, Mongolia vs Myanmar, Vietnam vs Macau and Malaysia vs Taipei.

But the Philippines vs Sri Lanka playoff was predicted to end up as among the 3 most interesting from those 8 matches.

The 2nd leg of the Azkals vs Sri Lanka will be on July 3 to be held at the Rizal Memorial Football Field.

Azkals vs Bangladesh Results: Azkals wins, 3-0, advances to AFC Challenge Cup 2012

The Philippine Azkals have made us so proud when they won earlier vs Bangladesh with a score of 3-0, during their final match in the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifiers.

That's more than what we've expected right?

The Azkals vs Bangladesh match happened at Myanmar's Bogyoke Aung San Stadium, 3:30 PM, (5:00 PM Manila Time) and despite having no live TV coverage, the live updates from ABS-CBN's Dyan Castillejo and Inquirer's Cedelf Tupas were enough to keep us updated with the game. (Read live updates HERE).

And definitely, they're more than enough for us to celebrate with the victory of the Azkals, who now qualifies for the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.

The Azkals indeed played amazingly, most especially Ian Araneta who scored the first goal and Angel Aldeguer Guirado who scored the next two goals. The deliveries of the goal were reportedly so much impressive!

Group A Final Team Standing:
1. Palestine (2 wins, 1 draw) 7 points
2. Philippines (1 win, 2 draws) 5 points
3. Bangladesh (1 win, 2 losses) 3 points
4. Myanmar (1 draw, 2 losses) 1 point

And so far, these are the teams who have already qualified for the 2012 AFC Challange Cup:

Group A: Palestine and Philippines
Group B: India and Turkmenistan
Group C: Maldives and Tajikistan
Group D: (still to be determined)

And what's more amazing is that, the Philippines is the only one so far from among the 8 lowest-ranked teams (those who went through the pre-qualifiers) who has already qualified for the final tournament.

A well-deserved "hero's welcome" awaits the Philippine Azkals as they come back to Manila this Sunday.

AZKALS' TWEETS AFTER THEIR HISTORIC WIN AGAINST BANGLADESH

@Jsabio3 (Jason Sabio) "What a feeling! Thank you to all the Azkal fans!! This win was for y'all and for us. Pinoy Pride! Let's celebrate this historic moment!! :)"

@anton_delro (Anton del Rosario) "Great win, good feeling, priceless!!! Thank you all for the support, couldn't have done it without you guys!"

@alybor11 (Aly Borromeo) "On to the final 8.. What a sweet victory! History in the books once more!! Thank you everyone for your undying support! :)"

@Neil38Etheridge (Neil Etheridge) "Heya all! Thank you for your support! Massive win! The team played well! Celebrations!"

Azkals sexy shirtless for Preview Magazine, March 2011 issue

Phil and James, Younghusband, Ian Araneta, Simon Greatwich and Aly Borromeo of the Azkals pose shirtless, sweaty and greasy, in their photoshoot for a magazine.

I also hope that Garage and Men's Health magazines will also feature the Azkals on their next issues.

Scans courtesy of Gio Paredes and azkalsunited.tumblr.com