As tough their 5-0 loss against Iraq may be, team captain Neil Etheridge knows there's still a lot at stake for the Philippine men's national football team in the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches.
The Philippine men’s national football team had no answer against Iraq, as the Filipinos absorbed a 5-0 loss in the second round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on Tuesday night, March 26, at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila.
It was a sour defeat for the Philippines, especially playing in front of the 10,000-strong home crowd.
That’s why team captain Neil Etheridge couldn’t help but apologize as well for the team’s lackluster performance.
“I think it's tough for me to stand here because I don't like to apologize but at the same time I do feel at this stage it's necessary,” Etheridge told the media after the match. “I think it's down to the coaches to assess the game. We made some crucial mistakes at crucial times and we got punished for that tonight."
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The Birmingham City keeper had nothing but praises for the 39th-ranked Iraq who made the proper adjustments in their rematch against the Philippines after narrowly escaping with a 1-0 win last Friday in Basra.
“I genuinely think that they [Iraq] are a very good team. They've obviously been together for a long period of time,” said Etheridge. “They're structured and they've got very very good players, individual quality, collective quality, and it's a level that obviously we aspire to get up to.”
Like coach Tom Saintfient, Etheridge is still optimistic about the national team’s chances of qualifying for the next round of the World Cup qualifiers, which would also guarantee their slot in the Asian Cup.
But to do that, the 34-year-old goalkeeper knows that his squad must move on from this defeat right away.
“We have a chance, we have two games. We know we need to get six points from those two games, they're both away from home,” said Etheridge.
“In football, you need to move forward very quickly and that's what we need to do this time around because we don't have time to dwell on that game, that result, we need to move forward. We've got camp and then hopefully internationals in June together. We need to forget the game but learn from it at the same time,” he added.
Up next for the Philippines in the World Cup qualifiers will be must-win matches versus Vietnam and Indonesia on June 6 and 11, respectively.
The top two teams in the group would proceed to the third round of the World Cup qualifiers and earn a direct berth to the 2027 Asian Cup.
Meanwhile, the bottom two teams would be out of World Cup contention and would have to compete in the third round of the Asian Cup qualifiers.