Philippines’ U19 team. | PFF photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine men’s under-19 squad wrapped up its 2024 ASEAN U19 Boys Championships campaign with a 0-1 defeat against Cambodia in Surabaya, Indonesia on Tuesday, July 24.
Cambodian striker EaV Sovannara nailed the lone goal in the 11th minute courtesy of a cross pass from Soen Thavisiv.
It was a heartbreaking defeat for the Philippines after controlling most of the ball possessions, and had several close calls for a goal.
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Otu Banatao, Sebastian Lizares, and Martin Merino’s attempts went wide, denying the Philippines three points to advance in the next round.
Worse, the defeat stretched their losing streak against the Cambodians to four matches in the ASEAN U19 Boys Championships.
In the end, the Philippines only tallied one win and two defeats in the group stage. Their lone victory came last Saturday against Timor-Leste U19, 2-0.
For Philippine Football Federation (PFF) President John Anthony Gutierrez, they promised to improve the national youth teams.
“We are going to make sure that our age group teams’ trajectory is upward,” Gutierrez said in his statement from the PFF.
“With our renewed emphasis on grassroots and youth talent development, we believe this will translate to better results in upcoming youth tournaments, as we want our younger teams to be the talent pool of future senior national teams.”
One of the players of the Philippines U19 squad was Central Visyas Football Asociation’s (CVFA) John Bhyl Gimenez who played for the champion team of last month’s PFF U19 Boys National Championship Division 1.
Gimenez was part of the champion team of the CVFA manned by the Don Bosco Technology Center (DBTC) Greywolves that won the title against the Negros Oriental Regional Football Association (NORFA), 2-1, in the championship match held here in Cebu.