Newly-married and inspired, Philippine men’s national football team forward Jarvey Gayoso remained upbeat about the Filipinos’ last push to make it to the semifinal of the 2024 ASEAN Championship Mitsubishi Electric Cup.
The 27-year-old Gayoso scored a promising first goal for the Philippines before ending up in another stalemate against visiting Vietnam — the team’s third assignment — on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
Coming on in the 65th minute, Gayoso didn’t take long to make his presence felt as he fired a left-footed shot three minutes later past Vietnamese keeper Filip Nguyen to give the Philippines a fighting chance in the next round.
The potential win, though, was spoiled by Vietnamese Ngoc Tan Daon’s last-minute goal in stoppage time.
Still, Gayoso is all about keeping a positive outlook, especially after just having tied the knot with long-term girlfriend Danica Gutierrez on Monday, right after the Philippines scored a similar 1-1 draw against Myanmar.
“For me personally, I just wanted to cap off the perfect week that I’ve had. I was able to [unify] my relationship with my Dani. And getting all of that out of the way, I just wanted to do my best for the country, and we fell short. But in the end, it was still perfect. I still offered it to my coming baby girl and my new wife,” Gayoso told reporters in a scrum interview.
“I guess everybody understands that I’m expecting a baby girl. That was for them, that’s for my family.”
“The instruction [of head coach Albert Capellas] was to showcase my talent and just basically do what I do. He trusted me to do what I needed to do,” he continued.
As it stands, the Filipinos are carrying a 0-3-0 (win-draw-loss) record heading to Indonesia, whose 1-1-1 card is not looking too secure at the moment.
Should the Philippines come out on top of Indonesia, the former will move on to the next round along with top seed Vietnam, setting them up for a semifinal affair with Thailand and the runner-up of Group A, respectively.
“We are still positive, we told ourselves that technically the most important game is the Indonesia game. And if you look at the table, sila ‘yung importanteng kalaban. A loss, a win, or a draw sila talaga ‘yung importanteng match namin. So ang focus lang namin ngayon at recovery talaga para makalaro kami one hundred percent,” Gayoso said.
[We are still positive, we told ourselves that technically the most important game is the Indonesia game. And if you look at the table, they are the important opponent. A loss, a win, or a draw, they are the important match for us. So our focus now is recovery so we can play one hundred percent.]
Likewise, Capellas is fairly certain that after three consistent promising matches, a win is just now in sight.
“It’s very easy, I’m sure they are one hundred percent motivated. Our goal is to win, I really think that if they fight like they did today, we create the chances that we create also in the other games, I think we have the chance to beat them,” Capellas said. “As a coach, I know that they will go there even without rest, even with only two days off. I know they will go there and fight as hell. They’ll try to win and qualify. I’m not worried at all.”
While the Filipinos will barely have time to rest and recover ahead of the kickoff, the Indonesians are coming off a crucial five-day rest following their 1-0 defeat to Vietnam last week. The game will be held at their home ground on Saturday at 8 p.m.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
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