BANGKOK—The Philippines may be coming in as the highest-ranked team in the group qualifying of the AFC Challenge Cup in Rangoon, Myanmar, but the rankings count for nothing as far as coach Hans Michael Weiss is concerned.
After posting a run of impressive results last year, the Azkals vaulted to a high of 151 in the world rankings, 10 places better than Myanmar, which is considered one of the hot favorites to advance from their group that also includes Palestine (177) and Bangladesh(174).
The Azkals, who will be playing three games in five days in Rangoon starting tomorrow, are under pressure to keep up with the expectations after making it to the semifinals of the Suzuki Cup last year.
“We have to be realistic,” said Weiss. “The ranking is not a true reflection of the status of the teams. I don’t want to spoil the party, I don’t want to spoil the joy, but we just have to take it one step at a time. We are not a super football nation yet. We still have a long way to go.”
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22 hours ago
what do you mean "we have a long way to go?" I disagree. we have a VERY VERY long way to go! good luck, coach. take em to the edge, make em see what's beyond it, but always try to pull em back!
ReplyDeleteThe coach said it right that the ranking doesn't reflect the status of the teams. The favourites may be Palestine with it's Chile connection. That they are ranked lower is just the fact that they are quite inactive within the last few years. The key match will be the opener vs. Myanmar. They want to use their home advantage and they want to kick us into the butt because they lost the seated place for the tiger cup against us...........so it will be a tough tournament for us to get a berth into the final stage of the challenge cup. But all is possible. Good luck Azkals.
ReplyDeletePalestine got many players with Palestine descent in Chile , but they are only fielding local players in AFC Challenge Cup .
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_national_football_team
http://footballpalestine.blogspot.com/