20 March 2011

Azkals kick off bid

BY BONG PEDRALVEZ

WITH new faces yet to be fully integrated into his squad, Philippine Team coach Hans Michael Weiss will aim for a more conservative approach against host Myanmar today as the country kicks off its campaign in the Asian Challenge Cup.

"Since we will play on Myanmar’s home ground, we will be have a much more defensive game, much more counterattacking," said Weiss, whose charges tangle with the Burmese at the Myanmar Football Federation Youth Center at 3:30 p.m. (5 p.m. Manila time).

The Nationals arrived in the Myanmar capital of Yangon last Saturday, merely three days after entering the stage despite losing to Mongolia 1-2 in Ulan Bator last Tuesday.

Thanks to a 2-0 win over the Mongolians in Bacolod last Feb. 9, the Pinoy booters advanced to the four-nation tourney, which also includes Palestine and Bangladesh, with a 3-2 aggregate tally in the home-and-away series.

But Weiss was concerned with the short run-up to today’s match, a sentiment he shared during the team’s only practice last Friday on the eve of its departure to Myanmar.

"The boys look tired and didn’t look sharp in practice. It must be because of all the traveling," he said, noting that before Mongolia they also trained in Japan the week before.

Weiss used the two-hour practice to size up new strikers, Filipino-Spanish Angel Guirado, who arrived that same day, and Germany-based William Espinosa, whose parents are from Laguna.

While generally satisfied with the form of the 6-foot-3 Guirado, Weiss was unhappy with what Espinosa showed on the pitch.

"I was unimpressed with Espinosa compared with the last time. He didn’t look match-fit. I expected better," related Weiss, who was earlier impressed by the 29-year-old forward when he trained with the Azkals in Bacolod.

"Maybe given one more week, Espinosa would be better, but we do not have that much time."

Guirado and Espinosa are expected to pick up the slack for striker Phil Younghusband, sidelined by a torn right hamstring suffered in the Mongolia outing and will be out of commission for at least a month for rehab.

"He (Younghusband) is a big loss, but I hope his replacements will be able to step up," the German mentor said.

Weiss also welcomed the return of regular goalie Neil Etheridge, who has been released by his English club Fulham, and key defender and fellow Filipino-British Rob Gier, who are both expected to shore up the nationals’ defense.

Another addition is Filipino-Danish defender Jerry Lucena, who will make his Philippine debut against Palestine on Wednesday and also suit up for the team’s third and final match against Bangladesh on Friday.

"Because of their (Gier and Lucena) experience, they will be able to fill the gaps in our defense," Weiss said.

In a separate interview, team manager Dan Palami said he was optimistic about his wards clinching one of the two slots at stake in the group to the Asian Challenge Cup main draw in 2012.

"We have a stronger team compared to what we had in Mongolia, so our chances in advancing are good," he said.

But while the Filipinos have the highest FIFA ranking among the four teams at No. 151, Weiss warned this did not mean they were the favorites to win it all.

"We are not yet at that level where we can dominate matches," he said. "We are not a super football nation yet."

"It took Japan 20 years to get where it is right now. We only have had six months," he pointed out.

Weiss noted that Myanmar and the Philippines fought to a scoreless draw in last year’s Suzuki Cup group stage "and now they are playing on their home turf. It is going to be a tough match."

He declined to make predictions about the country’s bid, except to say "we should qualify."

On the other hand, football chief Nonong Araneta said he would give a bonus to the Azkals should they hurdle the group stage, although he did not disclose how much the incentive would be.

Araneta added he and ABS-CBN, which holds the broadcast rights to the Azkals’ matches, were still trying to arrange to the live telecast of today’s game through the Myanmar Football Federation.

He said they had made inquiries about the live feed since March 3 but were unable to get a reply from the MFF since then.


Malaya.com

24 comments:

  1. I am glad to see that Coach Weiss is pragmatic enough to adopt a defensive approach when the situation demands.

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  2. Without live coverage, I am a little concerned about any shenanigans going on behind the scenes like shady refereeing or what not. Also the last international game hosted by Myanmar against the Indians resulted in bottles and stones being thrown at the players by the fans as this article reported:

    Pre-Olympic Qualifier: Myanmar Fans Pelt Stones And Bottles On Indian Players
    Disgrace…
    By Rahul Bali
    12-Mar-2011 12:40:00 PM

    In what was one of the worst displays of hospitality and hooligan behaviour at it's best, Myanmar fans allegedly threw stones and plastic bottles towards the Indian players when the two teams clashed in the Pre-Olympic qualifier at Yangon earlier this week.

    With India having the upper hand on the back of a 2-1 win in the home leg, until the half-time the hosts had failed to make any change to the scoreline. It was when the Indian players were heading towards the tunnel that bottles and stones were directed towards them though the players escaped unhurt.

    “Until the half-time, there was no police on ground and it was only when the match commissioner intervened that the security was better,” informed an Indian official who was an eyewitness to the scenario.

    Kyaw Ko Ko scored in the 64th minute and decided to do away with his jersey in his celebrations which drew the referee’s ire with a second booking to reduce Myanmar to ten men.

    “The red card incensed the crowd further and every time our player would go for a throw-in, bottles were thrown.

    “After the match when the Indian Ambassador along with the match commissioner came to congratulate us, the crowd started pelting stones. Everyone had to cover their head and walk out of the field.

    “The match commissioner mentioned to us that he shall mention about the incident in his official report to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC),” the source told Goal.com.

    _____________________________________

    Apparently some of these fans were arrested. India and Myanmar do have some history in the past(wars).

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  3. Top Special import for Azkals on Wednesday and Friday in myanmar!
    http://cebufa.org/forum/index.php?topic=308.msg5815#msg5815

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  4. Good research there Eagle. All part and parcel of playing away matches I suppose. I am a bit surprised though that being a military state they allowed that kind of behavior so I am suspicious they were lenient on that intentionally, given the history with India. Its these kind of instances that reflect on the capability of a country to host international matches. Funny that the article didnt mention who won the game. Had to look it up and found out India scored an equalizer in the final minute. You can imagine how that affected the crowd since it meant elimination for Myanmar with India winning on aggregate. That early goal would have let Myanmar win on away goals so you can see how incensed they might have been. I wouldnt have been surprised if there was a full scale riot after that goal and with Myanmar down to 10 men after their scorer was sent off for removing his shirt (which is a correct decision, thats an automatic red).

    But eagle on shady refereeing, I dont think even if we did something live it would make a difference. I am still incensed no one wants to talk about that first goal we conceded against Mongolia. We didnt hear a squeak from the commentators on the blatantly offside non call. Not even a question. Its like they were unaware of the rules. Or havent commented on enough football games (which is the likely scenario, ABS CBN sports is absolutely clueless on the correct way football should be covered). The players can raise a howl to no effect I know, but if the game remained at 1-1, I dont think we would have gotten the same endless debates on the weather or if it was Weiss fault for not preparing the team enough to play within the game plan. Thats where the commentators can make a hell of a difference on the performance of the team and how the public will view that game. Imagine instead of "Azkals freeze in Mongolia", you should have had " Azkals lose on dubious non call". Everyone concentrates on the result and to conveniently blame the weather but in the 2nd half it was very clear, we were not outclassed. We werent great but Mongolia was not better. No way they were gonna win that tie by another two goals. I dont know if you should blame that on the weather or just the quality of the Mongolians. A 1-1 scoreline would have been fairer and if Sabio had more experience, we could have not conceded the penalty. Anyway i digress. I apologize as I still have some pent up emotions about that game in Mongolia.

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  5. Kagaw says:

    Im sorry to bust your bubble. The first goal for MOngolia is no offside. Have you been there?

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  6. Finally someone to discuss this with!! Dont be sorry, I just want to get it off my chest. If you can convince me, I would be glad. I dont need to have been there to make that call. TV Camera showed two angles, it came from the free kick. The way I see it the player WASNT offside when the kick was taken. His run was good. The issue is, the kick was headed on by a Mongolian player. By that time the scorer was in an offside position, please tell me otherwise?

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  7. Check this out and tell me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvWSFCtcyuU

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  8. i had to watch the clip a dozen times so maybe I could pick a bone with you finally, jay, but you are spot on with your argument! why it wasnt spotted and called, no one knows. ref froze up, maybe had cerebral flatulence. could be both. team captain shouldve asserted his role there, not be nicey-nicey. team capns should make a habbit of establishing "rapport" with referees, that's there job, you know, just to keep them in check and on their toes.

    but in fairness to kagaw i want to hear what he has to say. maybe he was actually physically there and had a better angle. lets hear it kags.

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  9. Sorry jay,

    I spent more time in another website:

    usapangfootball.proboards.com

    so I just caught your reply just now. We have discussed the Mongolia game as well as Coach Weiss strategy in detail. I am just as frustrated as you with the previous game and you could read all my comments over there esp. in the Coach Weiss thread.

    I come here mostly for the news an occasional comments.

    As for myanmar, I think they have been spooked by all the rebellions going on in the middle east so they are allowing less press and tv coverage in case their people starts rebelling as well.

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  10. As for the India stone throwing situation, it happens in football all the time. In central america, they have thrown batteries, coins and bags of urine as well as bottles and stones at players. Officials need to remind security to crack down on such behavior. Otherwise it could get out of hand.

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  11. Jay,

    seems my previous post disappeared. anyways been discussing this topic in detail in

    usapangfootball.proboards.com

    so I wasn't able to answer you before. Check out the Coach Weiss thread over there.

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  12. guys, thats football and there are no perfect referees even in the utmost top level of the game. if ref counts a goal whether offside or on side then there is nothing we can do within the laws of the game. the linesman should be sanctioned. there are alot of referees who make dodgy decisions we could continue to blame them but the game is over. we are already through and why bother over that offside goal.

    lets just hope and pray we get a balanced game in a hostile atmosphere against myanmar.

    come on you, Azkals.

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  13. I dont think jay's issue is with the officials. we don't want our commentators to get in the habbit of making "dodgy" calls slide just like that. my take is that pinabayaan na lang baga, and that's just very "unFilipino", so to speak.

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  14. Funny you would take the trouble to bag your urine. Thats fanatical I must admit. Hahahah. Which thread you talking about eagle? there was a discussion on whether that goal was offside or not?

    Travis, I know Iam sounding unreasonable considering the game is done and were through. And I know we cant do anything about it. But what I am saying is, no one said anything? As commentators they should have raised hell. What if Paquiao went down due to a low blow? or get head butted and the fight had to be stopped and the referee would say it was a clean punch? Its the same banana but at least speak up because we wouldnt be talking about how the weather affected us when we lost. We were not beaten by a better team in Mongolia. We werent great but they werent better than us. Not to mention I really hate losing.

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  15. I think there was mention of the call in the Mongolia thread but I was referring to Coach Weiss system contributing to defensive lapses in both Mongolia games. I am happy that Weiss are now emphasizing a counteratacking defensive style in this game to minimize such mistakes.

    You should really be asking why Borromeo didn't question the ref about the offside call as he is the captain.

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  16. true to that. our own local commentators needs to stand a firm ground on every call if we are serious with football even commentators should comment and critic every call. media does play a big part in promoting justice in the world of football just like in any sport.

    i hate losing as well i've experienced it just by supporting my own club. and for the past how many years we have been used to losing. this time however is different and should be accustomed to actually winning. i dont mind us bowing out in the main tournament just as long as we go as far as we can and put up a fight against asian teams and prove that we are an emerging football country waiting for our "Golden Generation" to happen.

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  17. Fans in central america are crazy. In one instance, a war resulted bet. 2 countries after a controversial game.
    Nowadays, they don't throw bags of urine anymore, but the other objects I mentioned still get used occ. esp. in WC qualifying.

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  18. Yeah. Who can forget Andres Escobar? The Columbian defender who was allegedly shot and killed because he scored an own goal which led to their elimination in the first round of the world cup where they were heavily favored to progress?

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  19. That was a very good Columbian squad by the way.

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  20. Yup, Asprilla was at his peak. Then Valderama and Rincon, both icons of the game by that time...very tragic though. What a waste of human life..they said it was due to the drug cartels losing heavily on bets.

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  21. kid was warned b4 the incident. didnt listen. a different squad took him out. valderama was the golden boy of columbian football then. did some good stuff in mls also.

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  22. Yup that was tragic. That game was against the US who was hosting the WC. Sort of spoiled the mood here in the US.

    Valderrama was a joy to watch. outstanding technique and creativity. one of the greatest MLS players of all time inspite of playing there near the end of his career.

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  23. wala kayong magagawa sa mga local football commentators natin dahil di naman sila bihasa sa laro. di nila mapapansin na may dubious calls na kaya mag fofocus lang sila sa result. or sa play natin.

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  24. jiz cjeagle i didn't know you were in the land of mickey mouse. a friend of mine in sacramento wonders why she can't get a hold of an azkals jersey in the US. you in the know? she can just buy one and i wont have to send her mine :) you thought about running a little business on the side, he-he!

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