Sandro Reyes is on a high after the PMNFT’s inspiring run at the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup, but he believes this is only the beginning.
Sandro Reyes wanted the post-match press conference to go by as quickly as possible.
Although he was the star of the night at Rizal Memorial Stadium, named Man of the Match after the Philippine Men’s National Football Team’s (PMNFT) historic victory over Thailand in their ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup (AMEC) semifinal opener, he answered just a couple of questions before pleading to the media representatives, “I can hear the locker room celebrating already, so is that all the questions? I want to go celebrate with the team, too.”
The reporters erupted in laughter and Sandro hastened out of the room to rejoin his teammates. Nobody was going to stop him. Everyone understood why the young Filipino was so excited to return to the locker room: the Philippines had just claimed their first win over Thailand in 52 years, a triumph now hailed as the ‘Miracle in Manila.’
Later on, the media waited for another chance to ask Sandro Reyes their unanswered questions, while the players made their way to the team bus. But the 21-year-old, among the last players to leave the locker room, walked out blasting music from his speakers, still celebrating joyously, even breaking up an ongoing interview with Kike Linares.
“When you win, it feels like you’re really drunk,” Sandro tells The GAME in jest, reflecting on what was going through his mind at that moment.
As Sandro danced past a whole line of media personnel asking him for interviews, he simply smiled and danced his way to the team bus. All he wanted to do was soak in that winning feeling. After all, how often did moments like this come around? As history might suggest, only every 52 years.
The media didn’t get to ask Sandro any more questions. Yet, ironically, seeing him that elated became an entire story in itself: Sandro, as well as the rest of the PMNFT, knew that they were onto something special.
Grinning and bearing it
Results alone don’t do the PMNFT’s run in the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup justice.
The journey began with three straight 1-1 draws in the group stage. Unsatisfactory results, especially when they came frustratingly close to winning against Myanmar, where the team made 23 shots to their opponent’s eight, and nearly won a hard-fought battle against Vietnam.
“The Vietnam game, I think, was the most difficult one morale-wise,” Sandro recalls. “We invested so much into that game, and we were winning.”
The PMNFT showed promising form in their first three games, particularly against Vietnam, who were hailed as tournament favorites. In that match held in Rizal Memorial Stadium, the Philippines put the Southeast Asian powerhouse to the test, as they controlled possession and worked hard to create scoring opportunities, which eventually led to a Jarvey Gayoso goal to take the 1-0 lead.
If it weren’t for a last-minute set piece seven minutes into injury time, the Philippines would have walked away with a huge win over Vietnam. As Sandro puts it, “We were oh, so close to a historic win.”
Still, three straight draws didn’t do much to discourage this set of players. They believed that, with the way they had been playing, it was only a matter of time before they would win.
“Overall, the morale was still high because we played really well, and we thought, as long as we keep playing well, the results will come,” Sandro recalls. “We had to just pick it up right after as quickly as we could because the Indonesia game, we had to win.”
The Indonesia match was do-or-die for both teams if either one wanted to secure a ticket to the semifinals. And to stack the odds even higher against the PMNFT, they had been operating on a crazy schedule, traveling for home and away matches every three days. Looking back, Sandro regards the lack of sleep as the most difficult part of the journey.
But by no means was the team going to use this as an excuse — not even when they flew to Jakarta immediately after facing Vietnam, set to face a team that Sandro regards as, “The most aggressive country out of all the Southeast Asian countries.”
He adds, “Indonesia is a very passionate country…So obviously, when they saw that it was a do-or-die game for both teams, then there were obviously a lot of emotions. And we tried to make the game also as ugly as we could with, I don’t know, trash-talking or some little fouls.”
As a very young team, Sandro admits that a part of the game they enjoy the most is the drama. When the fatigue starts to set in, he confesses, “It’s the drama and the crowd and trash-talking that kind of gives me a bit more energy. And I think all of us, hyping each other up.”
If sheer passion got the Philippine team’s fuel running, then showing their edge on the pitch paid off. After Kristensen converted an all-important penalty shot in the 63rd minute, the Philippines held off until the final whistle to secure their first semifinal berth in six years.
Out of respect to the match hosts, the PMNFT celebrated their victory in the locker room. They were on a high, of course, but at the same time, it also felt like a sigh of relief that the hard work behind the previous results finally bore fruit.
And it would bear such sweet fruit again come the first semifinal leg of the tournament.
A win 52 years in the making
The Philippines had the advantage of opening their semifinal against Thailand at home in front of thousands of Filipino fans. Sandro Reyes himself had his entire family in the stands. But he revealed that, with so much on the line, he needed to find a way to block out the noise.
“Leading up to the game, I had to really, really keep telling myself to focus just on the football because in the past when I played these big games with a lot of crowds and important games, I would overhype myself…And it would really take away from my football game,” he acknowledges.
But the years have matured Sandro Reyes. He admits to putting a considerable amount of pressure on himself to perform throughout the tournament. Representing the flag, he wanted to give the country a reason to celebrate, and his desire to win manifested itself on the field, sometimes in fighting with the referees and getting into heated moments with his opponents. But more importantly, he needed to be a player his teammates could rely on.
To do so, he needed to lock in completely.
“In the national anthem, it was pretty hard to not look around and see the full stadium. But when the whistle blew, I was completely focused and I think the team was also completely focused.”
Sandro regards their first half performance against Thailand as “the best half of football” he’s witnessed from the Philippine team. They took control of the pace early on, dominating possession and actively creating chances to score. This was all a part of the playing style that PMNFT Head Coach Albert Capellas, who was appointed just last year, has been implementing.
Sandro acknowledges that, at first, he was worried about executing a more “risky” style of play, characterized by high possession and a high volume of attempts. “We came from years or decades of playing a certain way, not much risk football, just fighting and counterattacks and make sure you’re not conceding,” he explains.
“And then we go to the absolute extreme part of the game — but I think that’s actually what we needed…It was like, wow this is really risky. But even from the first game right away in Malaysia and Tajikistan [in the 2024 Merdeka Cup], we showed we could do it, and from there, I thought, okay there’s no doubt we’re gonna have success.”
The 21-year-old himself plays a defining role in Coach Albert’s system. As a midfielder with a strong ability to read the game and control the ball, he is one of the team’s best playmakers.
Twenty-one minutes into the match against Thailand, Sandro collected the ball at the halfway line and made a long pass to Alex Monis. Monis dribbled the ball back to Sandro, who positioned himself just outside the box at the perfect spot to make a clean strike that landed in the top left corner of Thailand’s goal.
The Filipino crowd leaped in the air with deafening cheers as they took a 1-0 lead.
“Actually, I wish I experienced it better because for some reason, when I scored, it was quiet. I blacked out for like five to ten seconds, it was like clouds…I didn’t even hear a roar, it was literally quiet. So, I wish I was able to experience the loudness, but I guess that happens.
“That goal was important, obviously. It gave me confidence throughout the game.”
Thailand found their equalizer just before halftime, and from there, the match stayed at 1-1 throughout the second round of 45 minutes. Sandro, who had been subbed off in the 94th minute and was feeling the lack of recovery, thought the team was about to settle for another draw in the tournament.
“I went out and I was clapping to the crowd, and I didn’t even see the foul happen. I was already like, ‘Okay, 1-1, let’s go to Thailand. I was done. I was not even watching.”
But a set piece that led to a header by Kike Linares caused pandemonium inside Rizal Memorial. 2-1 in favor of the Philippines.
If you watch the celebratory videos closely, you might spot Sandro celebrating with the team, jumping, screaming — and then falling to the ground, cramping. He laughs about it in retrospect. But to celebrate a 95th-minute goal that sealed the Philippines’ first win over the War Elephants in over five decades was worth the pain.
You could forgive the players’ excitement after securing such a seemingly miraculous victory on their home turf, even though they still had one more semifinal leg to go.
“We earned that because we suffered so much in the group stage.”
Fight to the finish
The Philippines did not make the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup finals — but they made sure they went down swinging.
They once again put Thailand to the test, this time on the defending champions’ home turf. “We got there and we realized, okay, the job is really not done yet. It was only [a one-goal advantage] in front of their fans, and they’re going to be really angry.”
Sandro recalls that the War Elephants’ energy had shifted in the Rajamangala Stadium. Out for blood, they scored two goals before the one-hour mark to lift themselves 3-2 on aggregate, which would have been enough to head to the finals.
“For a few minutes, it felt like, yeah, we have no chance anymore. But then, after they scored, they actually dropped a lot, and suddenly we had a lot of control of the game, and then the whole team started to believe.”
With fresh legs, Kristensen came on in the 73rd minute to provide the Philippines with one last lifeline: a goal in the 84th minute that would send this battle into extra time.
Although Thailand would eventually find their game-winner in the 116th minute, throughout the extra 30 minutes, Sandro knew that regardless of the outcome, the team had already achieved something pretty special.
To push the defending champions to the limit, Sandro reflects, “It felt really good, because it was like, wow, we’re in Thailand, in front of 30,000, in a semifinal, and they’re the ones who are defending. We’re the ones with the ball. That felt really good…”
But, of course, the loss still stung. “It was just really a lot of pain because we were close. Not sadness…It just hurt because, you know, we also had that chance of Jarvey [Gayoso] and Amani [Aguinaldo] in the 90th minute also before extra time…I don’t think everyone realizes we were that close. We were literally a tap in away from playing a final.”
After the game, Coach Albert put the players in a circle on the pitch and told them, “Football is sometimes like this, you’re the better team and you lose. Kind of like life; you can do the right things, but it won’t go your way.”
“But he’s just proud of the effort,” Sandro reflects. “Sometimes it’s not the result, but more what you do to try and get that result. I think that was the lesson there.”
A new dawn for Philippine football
Longtime Filipino football fans will always remember Sandro Reyes as the country’s football prodigy. After joining a football camp in Singapore, he was granted a highly coveted slot to join FCB Escola, a youth academy of Spain’s FC Barcelona — news that made the rounds in 2012. At nine years old, he became the only homegrown Filipino to be a part of the academy at the time.
His name, again, made headlines eleven years later when he became the first Filipino-born footballer to play in Germany’s second-tier division, 2. Bundesliga, for Greuther Fürth, yet another impressive move, this time in his professional career.
As of writing, Sandro continues to develop his talent with FC Gütersloh in Germany’s Regionalliga West, chasing his dreams in Europe.
Thus, when the wunderkind was entrusted with the captain’s armband in their victory over Thailand, after team captain Michael Kempter was subbed off, this was a special moment not just for Sandro, but for anyone who foresaw that he would become Philippine football’s next best thing. At 21 years old, he is living up to his name and leading a pack of ambitious individuals.
“That was pretty special. I think that’s the highest honor…I had to do more and make sure everybody was focused, as much as I could. But aside from that, everyone is a leader on their own.”
With every player in it for the flag, it’s no wonder that this group of PMNFT players has become more than just a football team. Even though many of them only joined the team recently, such as 2024 newcomers Monis, Scott Woods, Javier Mariona, Zico Bailey, and Kristensen, and despite the fact that they only get to play together every so often, their bond with one another has already been solidified.
“We really wish that more off-pitch moments were caught between the team because I think those built up to the moments on the pitch. We really enjoy off the pitch, there’s no fights or anything, no tension. We’re literally like 30 idiots just put in a room where it’s like a two-week sleepover,” he shares.
To be bonded by the flag creates what Sandro calls a “brotherhood experience” like no other.
“I think it shows in the games that we freakin’ fight for each other,” he says emphatically. “If somebody falls on the floor, there’s one guy right there to pick him up. If one guy is fighting with another player, your teammate is there to back you up right away. When you do something good, your teammate is hyping you up. When you’re not doing well, your teammate is telling you, ‘It’s okay next one, forget about it.’
“For me, life doesn’t get much better than that, when you’re experiencing the success on the field with your — I would call them a lot of them brothers.”
On and off the pitch, the PMNFT’s campaign at the 2024 ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup has become both a sign and a springboard of good things to come for Philippine football. Fiery passion, a tight-knit team, and skilled, young players. It now seems that they have what they need to propel this team forward. Could this be the beginning of a new chapter?
Sandro feels confident that this group can make it happen.
“Just based on the players that we have right now, I don’t even think I needed the performances to show me that good things would come. I think once you have good players, a good coach, and good management, and everyone has a good attitude, the results will end up coming.”
With players bringing a blend of playing backgrounds from all over the world — the Philippines, Spain, Germany, and the United States, among others — these up-and-comers are still works in progress. On his part, Sandro recognizes the different parts of his game that he’s picked throughout his life: “In Spain, it was the technical part, the tactical part. But when I got to Germany, it made me a much more complete player overall…I think Spain, Germany, and the Philippines have shaped who I am overall as a player today.”
However, Sandro also recognizes that playing abroad is not the only way to find success. Rather, he says, “It’s just what you do with what you’re given. I don’t think it should discourage any Filipino kid who’s not able to play abroad. [There are Filipino players who] have done much better than hundreds of kids who have gone abroad, so at the end of the day it’s just you know your own determination, your own mental game, how strong you are and how hard you’re willing to work for to get there.”
And just like everyone else, he has to work equally as hard if he wants this team to rise to new heights.
“I have to improve my own personal career in order to keep my status in the national team, and try and be a leader and an important figure in the team.”
Reflecting on what comes next for the PMNFT, Sandro asserts, “Now, it’s just about staying hungry. We still haven’t accomplished anything yet; we just showed our potential.”
This is only one of many more battles to come for this group of passionate youngsters. Up next, they will take on the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, with matches spread all throughout 2025, and this will be a true test of what this team can accomplish with what they have. As early as now, Sandro is setting the standard: “We have to dominate.”
At 21 years old, the Filipino has a long way to go with the national team. He hopes it will include more inspiring runs in the AFC Asian Cup and the FIFA World Cup Qualifying tournaments.
But until then, witnessing the potential from the team’s battles against their Southeast Asian competitors has arguably been enough to spark optimism for Philippine football. In fact, that is perhaps exactly what the Philippine Men’s National Football Team’s year-ending run did: it ignited the belief that the country may not need to wait another 52 years to feel this way again.
Banner image taken by Annika Cañiza.