Dan Palami savior of RP football

LONDON - Republic of the Philippines men's football team, popularly known as the Azkals, is back on the sports pages this past few days.


This time, for a good reason.

The Azkals are back on their winning form. The main reason for this is because they have found a new backer, Leyte Football Association's president Dan Stephen Palami.


The Azkals recently are in form as they finished second to host Laos in the elimination tournament of the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup Asean Championship in Vientine Laos trailing behind Laos on goal difference to qualify for the finals in Hanoi, Vietnam in December.


They defeated East Timor, 5-0, and drew with Laos, 2-2 and eliminated Cambodia with a hard-earned scoreless draw to advance to the proper tournament on Dec. 2, 5, and 8 against Asean football powerhouses, Myanmar, host Vietnam and Singapore.


The Suzuki Cup Asean Championship was formerly known as the Tiger Cup until its former backer Tiger Beer of Singapore had been changed by Suzuki motors of Japan.


It is an exciting chapter in the Azkals history and much of the credit goes to the 40-year-old Palami. He is the CEO of Autre Porte Global Inc. (APT Global).


The giant railway engineering company is involved in the construction, operations, and maintenance of railway systems. They are involved in various capacities in LRT Line 1 and Line 2 in Manila.


Palami's association with the Azkals started sometime in December of 2009 when he was approached by the PFF to manage the Nationals. He was just fresh from handling the RP Under-19 team which was formed one month before a tournament.


The RP U-19 team was humiliated for lack of preparation but he accepted the job to manage the Azkals on the condition that he would do it in his own way and isolate himself from the political intrigues that Philippine Football Federation (PFF) is involved in.


Palami's appointment as Azkals manager is probably the only positive credit that the current PFF regime has ever made. The PFF has left him to manage the Azkals like he manages his multi-million peso company. He is a hands on boss and he is always around when there are matches and when they need financial and material support.


Palami is involved in the recruitment of the players and the first thing he did when he was appointed was to get local players and hire a foreign coach to infuse system that could work for the Azkals in short term basis.


British Des Bulfin took charge immediately but was replaced this year by the youthful Simon MacMenemy of England.


Palami then recruited the locals led by the prolific centre defender and skipper Aly Borromeo and Anton del Rosario of Kaya FC, plus Philippine Airforce reliables, winger Chieffy Caligdong, striker Ian Araneta, defender Rey Palmes and the ageless Yanti Bersales.


Other players recruited from local teams include goalkeepers, 16-year-old Christopher Camcam from Southridge FC, and veteran Eduard Sacapano of Philippine Army, defenders Jerry Barbaso, Michael Atienza and Kristopher Relocio of Laos FC, midfielders Jose Caminos of Philippine Navy, Roel Gener of the Philippine Army, Mark Ferrer Philippine Airforce, Joel Ballo-allo, Nestorio Margarse Jr. of Philippine Army, Peter Jaugan of Philippine Airforce, and striker David Basa of UST.


Another teenage goalkeeper Jose Pascual of the University of San Carlos who had been invited to the training pool but has not showed up yet because of commitment to his school in Cebu.


He then re-activated the scouting and the recruitment of Fil-Foreign players. Palami is credited for rekindling the international football careers of the reliable Young husband brothers Phil and James.


The duo who used to play for the Chelsea FC reserve team in London found a niche in the Philippines but has stopped playing for the Azkals after a row with the PFF.


James and Phil are now back in top form scoring one goal each in their 2-2 draw against Laos. James also had two assists in their 5-0 victory over Timor-Liste.


Palami also signed Filipino British goalkeeper Neil Etheridge of Fulham FC of England, and Filipino-Dutch midfielder Jason de Jong from the Dutch League.


Other Filipino foreign players in the line-up include defenders Robert Gier, Gino Pavone, Mathew Hartman, and midfielder Manuel Ott.


In an interview with Palami, he said that he wanted to develop a team that everybody wants to support. At the start of this endeavor, he knew that is very difficult to get a private sector support for a team that has no winning attitude. But now that they have started winning and qualified for the Suzuki Cup, the Azkals have shown to everyone that they are a good team.


The next step--according to Palami-- is to look for partners who are willing to help the Azkals because, as of the moment, he only gets support from Mizuno for the Kits while all the rest is from his own pocket.


Palami is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and earned his accountancy degree at the University of the Philippines. He has studied to become a lawyer, but left UP law school in his fourth year to set up his railways company. He is now based in Manila but was born and grew up in Tacloban city, Leyte.


Suzuki Cup


With only more than a month of preparation before the Hanoi tournament, Palami is worried by the Azkals defenses. He said that the coming weeks will be spent on preparing the team defenses.


"We are capable of scoring goals and we always look very dangerous when we keep the ball, however we are always being caught flat-footed during counter attacks," he said.


He added that if they fix their defensive problems, they could actually reach the semis. Fil-British goalkeeper Neil Etheridge will be seeking permission from his London Club, Fulham to see action in the finals. Etheridge has been the starting goalkeeper for the Azkals since 2008 whenever he is available.


He flew to Laos to play in the elimination tournament and became a hero in their scoreless draw against Cambodia by stopping countless attempts. The draw sealed their fate to the Suzuki Asean Cup final.


Etheridge has been promoted to the first team of the Fulham FC starting this season after seeing action in their reserve and youth teams for many years.


Additionally, Palami will try to bring in another Fil-German defender Steven Schrock to bolster the team defensively.

Football community

The football community and Philippine sports in general is thankful for having Dan Stephen Palami as the chief supporter of the Azkals.


Danding Cojuangco did it before for the RP national basketball team. Now, Manuel V. Pangilinan is also doing it for Philippine basketball and Philippine boxing. But these two men are business tycoons and they have their own people to manage their teams.


Palami is different, he is always with the team. He even joins them when they travel and sits with them on the bench. Nobody has done this before for Philippine football. He describes this as his personal crusade to help football. Philippine football needs more people like him. It is now time for the public to support the Azkals and for the private partners to help maintain the cost of running the National team. Let's book our tickets to Hanoi. Go Azkals! Go Azkals Go!


GOD BLESS jackbiantan@yahoo.com

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