Malaysia, India invited vs Azkals

I remember Coach Weiss said in one of his interviews before that Azkals will have more international matches to improve the Azkals performance. I like this idea since the Azkals team still needs some improvements in their performance. Since most of the Azkals players came from different countries, more football matches will make the bonds of the team stronger. Hopefully, these matches will serve its purpose to improve Azkals level of play.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Football Federation has invited Malaysia and India to play the Azkals in October at home in friendly matches serving as preview of the national team’s two important competitions next year.

PFF chief Mariano ‘Nonong’ Araneta Jr. Friday said the invitation to the two squads came after Nepal turned down the PFF’s invite for an Oct. 6 exhibition match at the Rizal Memorial Football Field.

Playing against Malaysia and India, ranked No. 146 and No. 153 in the International Football Federation (Fifa), will give the Filipinos an opportunity to gauge their level of competitiveness as they will get to test the mettle of their future rivals in the AFF-Suzuki Cup and AFC-Challenge Cup, according to Araneta.

“We’ve invited India for an Oct. 6 date while Malaysia for Oct. 9,” said Araneta, noting that a response from Malaysia is expected in the next two days.

Malaysia, which beat Indonesia in the finals on 4-2 aggregate, is the reigning Suzuki Cup champion. The tourney is the same event where the Azkals’ brush with fame started following their historic semifinals finish last year.

India, on the other hand, is the 2008 Challenge Cup champion.

India alongside the Philippines, Nepal and five other countries, will play in the finals of the 2012 edition slated this March.

Araneta said Nepal, the host of Challenge Cup finals, declined the invite because the schedule runs in conflict with the Dashain, Nepal’s biggest festival of the year, which will keep the Nepalese booters busy.

source: mb.com.ph

2 Fil-foreigners to boost Azkals

Its great to know that Azkals is not giving up to strengthen their ranks by getting more players. 2 Fil-foreigners will be invited to boost the Azkals ranks. But I would love to see more local players to be included in the rank. I know that it will take some time to get some good local players here since Basketball is one of the most popular games here in the Philippines. But whether they are locally grown or fil-foreigner what important is the heart to play football and to play for the national team. We salute companies who also support sports teams not only the Azkals since our government cant support most of our sports teams.

PHILIPPINE Azkals coach Hans Michael Weiss yesterday revealed that two more Filipino-foreign players are slated to arrive in the country to reinforce the Azkals and the national under-23 squad as they prepare for a series of international meets in the coming months.

Weiss, who has just arrived from a three-week visit from his hometown in Germany, said the team needs to be reinforced by high-caliber players if it hopes to be competitive against football powers in the near future.

“We have many players in line. We have to bring in high-quality players, not average,” said Weiss during Wednesday’s ceremony honoring the Azkals and the Philippine national 4-a-side team to the Homeless World Cup at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.

During the ceremony, executives of Pharma-Rex, the official marketer of paracetamol brand Cortal SQR, presented P500,000 as financial support to the football teams’ stint in the Long Ten Cup in Taiwan and the Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.

At the same time, HWC coach Rudy del Rosario and team supporters also received a check of P300,000 from Cortal SQR brand manager Anton Panajon. The national four-a-side squad will see action in the 2011 Homeless World Cup in Paris, France on Aug. 21 to 28. Peter Atencio - manilastandardtoday.com

2 Azkals may miss match

The Azkals faces another player problem because two of their players, Neil Etheridge and Marcus Stephan Schrock cant play next match. We have seen this kind of scenario when two of their players wasnt able to play in their 1st leg of Azkals vs Kuwait game. Hopefully they will find the right replacement for these players as soon as possible so that they will be able to play with the team or else they will surely have a hard time winning any match for their next play. We still dont know how much this will affect the Azkals team but they are surely still positive to win their next football matches.

MANILA, Philippines — Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge and attacking midfielder Marcus Stephan Schrock are unlikely to join the Philippine football team when it sees action in the Long Teng Cup slated in Kaohsiung, Taiwan late next month.

The four-nation tourney is the first of many lined up for the Azkals following their elimination in the second round of the World Cup qualifiers last July.

The presence of the two players, who shone against the Kuwaitis during the qualifiers, will surely strengthen the Azkals’ chances, but team manager Dan Palami said he may just tap their services for a more important competition in the future.

The 6-foot-2 Fil-British Etheridge, 21, is set to be promoted as regular reliever on the first team of Fulham, which competes in the Premiere League, while the 5-foot-5 Fil-German Schrock is busy with his ballclub Greuther Furth playing in the German second division.

“It’s unlikely that he (Etheridge) will play. For Schorck, may be not also,” Palami said in a recent interview.

“We want to preserve our relationship with their teams, so we bring in the players only when it’s absolutely necessary,” continued Palami, who left for Europe Wednesday to scout possible reinforcements for the Azkals.

Palami, though, said the Under-23 pool preparing for the Southeast Asian Games in November will join the Azkals in the event, where they are bidding to improve on their second place finish behind Hong Kong last year.

The Sept. 28-Oct. 6 competition will have competing teams from Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong and Philippines although Philippine Football Federation chief Mariano ‘Nonong’ Araneta Jr said the organizers plan to expand the cast to six.

Last year, the Philippines finished with a 1-1-1 record in the competition, thumping Macau, (5-0) drawing with Taiwan (1-1) and bowing to Hong Kong (4-2).