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Friendlies vs top teams spice up Azkals UAE buildup

6 posts from 5 voices
  • Started 3 months ago by Azkals
  • Latest reply from soccerpride
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Tags:

  • AFC Challenge Cup
  • Azkals
  • football news
  • UAE Friendlies

  1. Azkals

    The First Azkal
    Joined: Oct '08
    Posts: 1,311

    Friendlies vs top teams spice up Azkals UAE buildup
    By Olmin Leyba
    Philstar (Source)

    MANILA, Philippines - A Philippine Azkals crew cramming to get into shape and achieve cohesion for its upcoming AFC Challenge Cup campaign hopes to make the most out of its Middle East training camp.

    The Azkals leave for the UAE tonight via Emirates for their 10-day camp, cranking up their buildup for the March 8-19 Challenge Cup in Nepal away from the many distractions in Manila and temporarily free from their club commitments.

    Highlight of the training are friendlies against Uzbekistan’s Olympic team on Saturday night at Maktoum Stadium Al Nasr Sports Club in Dubai; against Qatari first division side Al Ahli Sports Club Monday night in Doha; and against Qantas Australian U-23 on Thursday also at the Maktoum Stadium Al Nasr Sports Club in Dubai.

    “It’s super-fantastic for us (to play these teams),” said Azkals coach Michael Weiss.

    “It’s a wonderful opportunity, regardless of the results. I always did it wherever I was in – China, Africa. With the younger ones, you need to face stronger oppositions, then you’ll grow as a team and then you’ll be ready for the Challenge Cup, even without the professional players,” he added.

    According to the organizers, Phl XI will bring 18 players, led by Fil-British Phil and James Younghusband and Rob Gier, Fil-Spanish Angel Guirado and Carli de Murga, and two new recruits, Guirado’s older brother Luis and Fil-German Denis Wolf.

    Chieffy Caligdong is in the roster after getting clearance from sports specialists who examined his injured knee again over the weekend. Doctors and team officials are optimistic Caligdong will heal and be ready in time for the Challenge Cup.

    Making football known in the Philippines.
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    Posted 3 months ago #

  2. HRK1

    senior member
    Joined: Jul '11
    Posts: 272

    I am excited for the AFC Challenge Cup to start.

    I also question the judgment of the AFC Challenge Cup format (I think the the groups were rigged).

    The competition is for emerging asian teams (ie us, guam, mongolia, bangladesh etc etc). PS: Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are not even allowed to be in the competition - these countries are proven football powerhouses in the region, hence they are ineligible to compete.

    It can be argued that N Kor, Tajikistan and India were developing or emerging Asian countries when the idea of this competition was first formalized...but they have improved since then (specially N Kor, their standard is now comparative Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Japan of the late 80s early 90s).

    Whats worse for PHI, is that they are grouped with N Kor, Taj and India (who are previous finalists in previous editions of the competition). After the failure of the U-23 team during the SEA games, it is best not to get carried away with media build up of the team.

    http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/245898/sports/football/azkals-path-ahead-through-the-afc-challenge-cup?ref=subsection_item

    A good article from Roy Moore (above).

    "Do or do not. There is no try" (Master Yoda)
    Posted 3 months ago #

  3. Junior

    preferred member
    Joined: Mar '11
    Posts: 298

    I am very excited for these friendlies and I hope I will be able to watch the game here in KSA (Should there will be a live telecast from UAE). About AFC Challenge format I only can say that the Teams included are way below the rankings and they are also trying to develop their team. It only happened that they are in this sport for a long long time now and it is very unfortunate for us being as we say "new" to this sport. So overall I can say that the format was just fair enough except for the inclusion of North Korea which will be too much for any team they will face in their group

    "Respect is the only thing that can never be given. It has to be earned."
    Posted 3 months ago #

  4. aliceJay

    member
    Joined: Apr '11
    Posts: 31

    North Korea is obviously the top favorite of the whole competition, no doubt. But i think it kinda depends to some extent on what kind of team they will show up with. If they bring most of their best possible players, including all those veterans who even experienced WC 2010 finals, it will be extremely difficult for other participants to get past them. However, i don't think they will. Since North Korea got eliminated from 2014 WC qualifiers, they now need to start to rebuild the national team with younger blood in a long term plan for 2018 WC. And since they know they're the strongest side in Challenge Cup, they may think their future-focused squad can be competitive enough. So i think it's highly likely that they will bring younger team, which can probably include some extremely young players from their U-20 team who were one of the four AFC teams having competed in last year's U-20 World Cup along with South Korea, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. Well, though it will be hard to beat whatever team they will bring, chances are definitely higher when they do show up with mostly new generation players.

    As for India, well though i think they would be pretty much beatable only if we could form a nearly complete team like the one faced Kuwait, since it's highly unlikely, we gotta admit it will also be a hard task to beat them. Like us, they're also one of the fastest growing countries in AFC football scene and their recent NT results prove it. I think the level of India NT at the moment is on par with current ASEAN top teams like Malaysia and Indonesia, or higher. But still, if we prepare well with as many players as possible, Mr.Weiss comes up with proper tactics, and if some luck helps, i don't think it's impossible to beat them, or pull off a draw.

    Now Tajikistan, i think there's no reason to be scared of them. They are not that strong at all, and i dare to say that we have enough chance to beat them even with the limited squad. I'm not saying we should look down on them, but i'm just saying that we have at least 50% chance to beat them even if we can't bring full team. In my perspective, any ASEAN big 5 teams are officially better than the Tajiks. I'm not talking about the ranking. I checked their NT results in last 3 to 4 years, and my conclusion is that they're not much stronger than even Nepal. Yes they were 2006 Challenge Cup champion, but it was 6 years ago and back then all the teams they faced until the final were Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the final counterpart was Sri Lanka. This is not really much a scary career. Some may point out that they advanced to the on-going 2014 WC qualifier 4th round, which we couldn't, but it was thanks to Syria who got disqualified for fielding an ineligible player vs Tajikistan at 3rd round where Syria originally won by 6-1 on aggregate. So, they're beatable, and that's why i think vs Tajikistan is gonna be the most entertaining match.

    My overall expectation is 1-1-1, and this result may or may not let us advance to the semifinals. We may need luck, but once we do advance, our counterpart i think is gonna be Turkmenistan or Palestine, and they are not that formidable.
    Anyway, i'm really looking forward to Challenge Cup. I just hope it's gonna be a big fun to watch, regardless of the final position of us.

    Posted 3 months ago #

  5. aliceJay

    member
    Joined: Apr '11
    Posts: 31

    *Correction

    "Some may point out that they advanced to the on-going 2014 WC qualifier 4th round, which we couldn't, but it was thanks to Syria who got disqualified for fielding an ineligible player vs Tajikistan at 3rd round where Syria originally won by 6-1 on aggregate."

    4th round / 3rd round -> 3rd round / 2nd round

    Posted 3 months ago #

  6. soccerpride

    mod
    Joined: Aug '11
    Posts: 274

    OK, a bit off topic, but is Guam really considered part of the Asian games? It hardly seems correct? But then again what do I know. I do know however, we just lost our states Technical Director to Guam...not sure in what capacity, but something on the national level.

    Pride*Passion*Perseverance
    Posted 3 months ago #

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