Younghusband contributes to Philippine respect

With six goals to help the Philippines qualify for the next round of the 2007 ASEAN Football Championship, Fil-Briton Philip Younghusband should be credited for bringing respect to Philippine football, Henry C. Villalva wrote in the Sun Star. "Phil is obviously low key despite being already a reserve in the English Premier League side Chelsea at only 18 years old. Asked to react about his being the top goal maker during the qualifying series held last 12-20 November at the Panaad Sports Complex, he shrugged off his being prolific scorer, saying 'It's the fantastic Negros crowd that made me do it.'"

Younghusband continued: "Yeah, it's really a great feeling to be playing here in front of the Negros crowd. It's certainly an experience I'll never forget ... Maybe some people didn't believe we would be able to qualify especially following the results we got during the last SEA Games. But I believe our team is really on the upswing after we've trained and played together for a while before the qualifier here. I mean, if we were quite unimpressive during the SEA Games I think we've displayed some confident, tactically-balanced football during the ASEAN qualifier and we're happy because I think we've started to establish some kind of respect for Philippine football at the regional level," he explained.

So where does he see Philippine football ten years from now? "Up there, of course. Although on a wider international stage the Philippines is still one of the weakest teams in Asia I think we ought to be positive of our future. Remember for the first time we're no longer being clobbered like 13-0 in a regional qualifier. I think that says a lot about what's in store for us if we keep ourselves focused on things we must do to continue improving," Younghusband pointed out.