Historic Azkals win puts PHL on global football radar

The historic World Cup qualifiers victory of the men's national football team has sent ripples through the global football community and made it to the webpage of the International Federation of Associated Football (Federation International de Football Association, FIFA). It was the first time the Philippines advanced to the second round of the World Cup qualifiers. But the Azkals will face increasingly tougher opponents. Tuesday morning, FIFA.com's homepage breaking news banner had a two-paragraph account of Sunday's 4-0 Philippines win over Sri Lanka and a photo of midfielder Stephan Schrock in control of the ball as he is about to give it a powerful kick.

Click here to view full screen Sunday's Azkals victory was featured twice on the webpages of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The match summaries are posted on the AFC website's Tournaments section. The Philippine team has advanced to the second round of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. Their next opponent will be Kuwait, ranked 102nd in the world and 11th in Asia. The Philippines' world ranking is 159th while in Asia, it is 29th. In the middle of this month, the national contingent goes to Bahrain for test matches against that country's Olympic team. They then go straight to Kuwait for the first leg of their Round 2 matches before returning to Manila for their July 28 home game at Rizal stadium. — OMG/HS, GMA News