Lone goal welcomes Saintfiet's PH coaching stint with a defeat

A strong defensive outing the entire match wasn't enough to give the Philippines and its new head coach Tom Saintfiet a win as Iraq mounted a second-half barrage of attack to expose the pockets in defense and snatch a late goal to grab the solo lead in Group F of the joint 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers.

Hoping to fix what seemed to be a broken system, Saintfiet focused on keeping an organized backline against the Lions of Mesopotamia who's expected to go all-out against the Philippines in front of a strong 63,750 at the Basra International Stadium.

Not only were they expected to lead, the ranked 59th in the world was expected to come out of this group with maximum points after a solid outing in the recently concluded AFC Asian Cup 2023 where they topped their group with three wins including a historic win against tournament favorites Japan.

Throughout the entire first half, the Philippines were on a back foot and was forced to defend all of the attacks coming from Iraq. Neil Etheridge was once again the man between the sticks who produced massive saves to keep the match level.

Despite a solid 85% in possession, Iraq couldn't seem to break the defensive line of the Philippines until the second half. In the 84th minute, Amir Al-Ammari sent a long ball forward which was met by Mohanad Ali who then lobbed it past the onrushing Etheridge to score the only goal of the match.

The Philippines would get one last chance through Mike Ott's free-kick but it was fended off by the Iraqis who left the Basra International Stadium with another win to keep themselves undefeated in their group.

"I'm disappointed about the defeat because I hate losing but I'm very proud of the performance of my team," said Saintfiet.

He knew, coming into this match that they were playing against a very strong team and said he's a big fan of Iraqi football.

He also said, "Our goal was clearly to take one point and my team did very well but one moment of lack of concentration and the top team that came out utilized it well."

Saintfiet also provided some tidbits of his tactics on how he analyzed the Lions of Mesopotamia's attacking prowess saying, "We knew the qualities of Iraq and we tried, with tactical discipline and overlapping to close the areas and it was clear that most of the time, Iraq had difficulties and had no answer or solution."

In four days' time, the Philippines will play against Iraq for the second time in the joint qualifiers, this time, hoping to bank on the support of the hometown crowd. Massive efforts to bring in the fans have already been made with the #10KStrong movement and various activities such as selling tickets during the UAAP matches as well as continuous social media presence for both the Philippine Football Federation and the Philippine Men's National Football team.

For those who still haven't gotten their tickets, you can purchase them by going to ticketmax.ph and be part of the movement to #StandYourGround.