Philippine men’s national football team head coach Tom Saintfiet lamented the momentary lapse the Philippines committed after its 0-1 loss to Iraq last Friday in their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers match at the Basra International Stadium last Friday.
Saintfiet, who was appointed last February, said the national team almost had the Iraqis all figured out after not scoring for the majority of the match.
The lone goal of the game came from Mohanad Ali after scoring in the 84th minute to give the Lions of Mesopotamia the victory.
“I’m not happy with the loss because I hate losing. But I’m very proud of the performance of my team. I knew that we would play against a strong team,” said Saintfiet, who led Gambia to the quarterfinals of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
“The Iraqi team, for most of the time, had no solution against the tactical discipline of the Philippines. We analyzed Iraq. We knew the qualities of Iraq, the wingbacks and the wings.”
Sitting in fourth place in Group F with a 0-1-2 win-loss record, the Philippines has to get more wins to get at least second place and advance to the next round of the qualifiers.
Saintfiet said he and the team will have to make the most of the time given to them before they face Iraq again on Tuesday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium at 7 p.m.
From there, anything can happen.
“We started three days ago, I saw my players for the first time. Some on Monday and some on Tuesday. The progress is very good,” Saintfiet said.
“The Iraqi team, for most of the time, had no solution against the tactical discipline of the Philippines. We analyzed Iraq. We knew the qualities of Iraq, the wingbacks and the wings. We tried to close the errors and it was clear that for then most of the time, Iraq had no answer but they won so in the end, they did everything right.”
