The Philippine Azkals won the hearts of football fans when they left their locker room at a stadium in Dubai despite losing their first match for the Asian Cup.
The team posted on social media their clean locker room at the Al Nasr Club’s Maktoum Stadium in Dubai with a message of appreciation to the organizers: “Thank you, Dubai.”
The Azkals lost with a score of 0-1 against South Korea last Monday.
“We leave the stadium tonight with full hearts, and so many lessons after our first ever @afcasiancup match,” they said in the caption,” they said on Instagram.
“Maraming Salamat sa lahat ng sumuporta sa amin…hindi lang sa Dubai, pero sa buong mundo! Ramdam namin suporta niyo Pilipinas!” it added.
The gesture was also appreciated by some non-Filipino fans.
The Azkals bowed to the South Korean team on their debut at the AFC Asian Cup 2019, the 17th international men’s football championship in Asia.
Despite the defeat, Coach Sven Goran Eriksson still commended them for standing up to the mighty Koreans, who won gold at the Asian games in 2018.
“I think we showed here that this country can play good football. They (Korea) had the ball much more than we had but we did a lot of good things defensively and created chances and with a little bit of luck, we could have gotten a different result,” he said.
The Azkals will face China on January 11.