19 March 2011

How to stabilize the Azkals

SPORTING CHANCE By Joaquin Henson (The Philippine Star)

Fil-foreigners fly in and fly out when they’re called to play for the national football team. It’s a guessing game as to which players will show up for a tournament. Several Fil-foreigners are tied down to contracts overseas. Although they’re allowed an occasional leave of absence for “national duty,” nobody’s ever sure if permission will be given by the higher-ups of their mother clubs. Often, permission is granted late and players scramble to find flights to make it on time for a competition, arriving with a bad case of jet lag.

No question, the Fil-foreigners are skilled and talented. They wouldn’t be signed up in foreign leagues if they weren’t. But there’s such a thing as chemistry – not only in terms of playing together on the pitch but also in terms of getting along with teammates off the pitch.

When the Azkals lost a 2-1 decision to Mongolia in Ulan Bator last week, it was clear that the freezing weather wasn’t the Philippines’ only adversary. It was also lack of chemistry. The absence of Rob Gier, Jason de Jong and Neil Etheridge was conspicuous.

“We weren’t complete,” lamented Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano Araneta.

But that’s the reality of football, particularly in the case of the Philippines which is classified in the lowest of three tiers of competitiveness in Asia. The Philippines is in the “emerging nations” category. Defending Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup champion North Korea is in the first class of “developed nations” while Myanmar is in the second class of “developing nations.” Given the Philippines’ classification, it’s not likely that Fil-foreigners will stay in the country and play if they have attractive options overseas.

* * * *

Azkals coach Michael Weiss’ situation is unenviable. He has to juggle players in and out of the lineup, accommodating Fil-foreigners who come and go to reinforce his cast. How he has been able to keep the team together in spite of challenging conditions is a tribute to his leadership. Weiss is clearly a master of adjustment and that’s a noteworthy quality.

The Azkals left for Myanmar yesterday and will play the host nation tomorrow to open their campaign for a ticket to the Challenge Cup finals. At least two players are flying in from overseas to Yangon directly, meaning they’ll lijavascript:void(0)kely show up for the Myanmar match without practicing. It was still not certain at presstime if De Jong would be given a leave of absence by his Indonesian club to play in Myanmar. As many as six players who didn’t suit up in Mongolia will be on the roster for Myanmar.

How to stabilize the Azkals for the long term is an issue that must be addressed now.




Team manager Dan Palami said the other day he’s now looking at building up the country’s under-23 squad that will compete in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Indonesia this November. That’s why the Azkals brought in three under-23 recruits to Yangon. Palami is obviously trying to establish some kind of a foundation for the under-23 team – a foundation that can only be firmed by stability.

A former national football coach said recently the practice of importing Fil-foreigners for short-term duty must be rationalized because in the long run, it could be detrimental.

“Ideally, the national team should enlist only up to five or six top Fil-foreigners,” said the coach. “We should build the team around 14 to 15 locals who stay in the country. The Fil-foreigners should also live in the country and play in local leagues. They should show the fans their spirit of patriotism. It’s difficult to understand how we can generate teamwork with players who come and go. Where is the team spirit? When the Fil-foreigners arrive, they hardly have time to practice. The massive presence of Fil-foreigners may not be good. It’s a system of one player here, one player there, depending on who’s available. It may be fine if we’re winning but if we’re losing, particularly as we begin to play a higher level of competition, it won’t make sense anymore.”

At least, Fil-British stars Phil and James Younghusband have decided to settle in Manila. But players like Rob Gier, Neil Etheridge, De Jong, Simon and Chris Greatwich, Ray Jonsson, Patrick Hinrichsen, Angel Guirado, Jason Sabio and Jerry Lucena are transients.

* * * *

My opinion is once Weiss settles in with the Azkals, he’ll know exactly which positions the team will require reinforcements. Weiss is relatively new on the job and it will take a little time before he figures out how to get the best out of the national team, given the talent available. Ultimately, he will rely on a nucleus and enlist reinforcements to plug the holes in the weak spots which shouldn’t be more than four or five at the most. That way, the Azkals won’t be strangers to each other too much whenever they take to the field.

Meanwhile, PFF technical director and former national coach Aris Caslib said scouting of opponents in Myanmar is crucial. The talk is Myanmar is fielding a team that is radically different from the squad that the Philippines held to a scoreless draw during the Suzuki Cup group stage in Vietnam last year. But since Myanmar is the Azkals’ first draw, the Philippines won’t enjoy the luxury of scouting the team – probably, a deliberate ploy by the hosts.

“The importance of the competition in Myanmar must inspire our team to be in the final stage of the Challenge Cup,” said Caslib. “Our motivation is we Filipinos are behind the Azkals. As for strategy, I think we should play our style of game, when to play direct and build up. We were affected by the absence of some key players in Mongolia even though Eduard Sacapano played decent in the match.”

28 comments:

  1. this happen in minor competition only.
    no problem bring the best squad in major competition such as world cup and asian cup qualifier because it will be held during international break

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  2. "A former national football coach said recently the practice of importing Fil-foreigners for short-term duty must be rationalized because in the long run, it could be detrimental."

    - It's so obvious that the unnamed coach is Juan Cutillas! He's said something very similar before. He's a waste really. He would've been a very respectable coach but some of that respect has gone out the window with this bullshit he keeps repeating.

    "Enlist five or six to fil-fors..."
    - Bullshit! This is the national team. You need to pick the best players available. If all the best players half Filipinos, so be it, they should get picked.

    "We should build the team around 14 to 15 locals who stay in the country."

    - This is tied in with the above. Would these potential 14-15 players be of international standard and be better than any potential foreign born Filipino? For the most part the answer is no. More BS!

    "The Fil-foreigners should also live in the country and play in local leagues."

    -Putangina is all I have to say about this!! Right off the bat, what league?!?!? There is none! Let alone a league where one can they can make a good living off of. Even if there was one, it won't be as competitive or prestigious as playing a more competitive and recognized league in a different country abroad. On the same time, why would they choose to live in the Philippines when they clearly have a better life and better living conditions where they are?!? Be it England, Germany or wherever else.

    " They should show the fans their spirit of patriotism."

    - So them playing for the country isn't patriotic enough? It's not like they were forced to play for the Philippines! Again fuck off!

    I could go on and on but it's wasting my time! These foreign born players for the most part are better than the locals and yet it's all of a sudden their fault. Blame the PFF for its incompetency for not being able to develop the local game all these years... decades even! Like I said, it's obvious it's Juan Cutillas who's saying these things, so for him, STFU! But if it's not... still STFU!

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  3. AMEN to the above!

    I wholeheartedly agree that local talent must be developed and nurtured...but if any of our homegrown talents have an opportunity to develop their skills in foreign leagues, should we begrudge them for looking to improve their game?

    Playing for a local club doesn't make a player more "Pinoy" than another; the logic just isn't there.

    The argument that players need to be playing in the same country is ludicrous. Look at Argentina and Brazil as prime examples. Their players are spread all over clubs around the globe. How about England? Their players play almost exclusively in the Barclay's EPL; where's their "chemistry?"

    - The point is, unless the NT is based on a regime like North Korea, all nations' squads are going to be 'scrambling' for chemistry...any chemistry they have will be formed over YEARS over a core squad, with older players being replaced by younger players, and the cycle continues.


    P.S. - On a personal note, while I honor differing opinions and healthy debate as much as the next person, this "Former National Football Coach's" thought pattern is mind-boggling. Our NT should be comprised of the BEST Filipinos at our disposal; be they local/foreign. Playing local players only because of their availability/"patriotism" is stupid. I can't even sense a motive...political? Whatever. Anyway, "Former National Football Coach" just blew my mind with his ignorance.

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  4. Absolutely, "stability" at this point is not a luxury for the Azkals' training staff. Tactical deployment of a strong line up based on the availability of Filipino foreign-based players will be a very tough job to do. Right, there will never be any team chemistry until all members train and play and stay together, laugh, weep, celebrate and bleed together most of the time as a team. The collective skills will never come around to form that necessary team confidence without these elements. Personality clashes could also erode team integrity and flow of communication because of inconsistency of team members' availability. It's
    just not the kind of winning formula that a training staff wants to deal with. Must suck to be in that staff right now.

    But they're dealing with it best they could. I think Dan Palami and Weiss will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

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  5. Indeed. As much as people may disagree, managing a NT isn't easy, and I am on board with what Palami/Weiss have been doing. Hopefully people don't get the wrong idea that Fil-foreigners are any less "patriotic" than the next Pinoy.

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  6. Amen again to all you guys above. Pragmatism before patriotism is the only way Filipino football can evolve. Someday there will be a genuine nationwide professional league here but that's still many moons away. In the meantime we have to accept Fil-Fors without limits and without moans because the day will come when without adequate financial reward every talented Pinoy will be a Fil-For playing and living abroad.

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  7. Yeah sounds like comments that Juan Cutillas has said before. National teams the world over deal with issues like this all the time. And full Filipino players given a chance to play abroad will also act the same way as their foreign based counterparts irregardless of patriotic fervor or whatever. We can't blame them for staying with their clubs if their clubs refuses to release them and we can't blame the clubs who are paying their salaries if they need to keep them for games, when it is not considered a FIFA mandated international break. Some of the things he said just doesn't make sense.

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  8. Agree with most of the sentiments here. Quinito Henson doesn't know what he is talking about. Someone mentioned it quite correctly, clubs are not mandated by FIFA to release players for minor competitions. So we have to deal with that challenge as best we can.

    Secondly, almost all the top national NTs have their players playing all over the globe. Even during FIFA sanctioned qualifiers, a NT coach usually has his players for 3 days at most. Only during the World Cup or Regional Cups (Euro cup, Copa America, etc) do they get a few weeks with their players but that is because it is off-season for most of the leagues.

    Thirdly, it is quite stupid to rely on a core of local based players if we have no decent and competitive local league available for them play. They won't be up to standard, no matter their chemistry. That's why a club coach is much different as a NT coach. The world over, a NT coach has to put together a number of players in a short time and expect to perform as a team, fluid and in sync. That's why you see NT coaches going all over the leagues watching potential players to see not only if they're good enough but also whose playing styles will fit with the other players he has in mind.

    It is a long process and this is growing pains. But one cannot deny the advantage of having foreign based players plying their trade in top clubs. What we need to do is make the local league competitive to have enough of our players get noticed by the top clubs and given a chance to play professionally. This is where the Africans and South Americans have benefited a lot. They have top clubs instead of their FA spending resources developing their players, making them better and improving their fitness levels. When time to suit up for their country, they just call them in with all those players very much willing to play for the flag and country.

    We're still a long way from that, but at the moment I believe along with the others here that the current leadership know what they are doing.

    GO AZKALS!!!

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  9. On the last statement above, I admire the dedication that the PFF and especially Dan Palami has shown in trying to improve Philippine football. However, I am starting to have some doubts on whether he picked the right man(Weiss) to run the team. It is early and I will be the happiest guy in the world if he proves me wrong but Weiss'es work in the past 2 games has not instilled me with confidence. Hope we do better.

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  10. Kagaw says:

    Quinito Henson s*cks ass when it came to football.

    All nations competing on the Challenge Cup are of emerging nations category.

    Again, Quinito s*cks!!!

    Also, I don't think that his "according to a coach" line doesn't come from person knowledgeable in football. He gets that from his ass. Anyone with half a mind who is into football knows that the National Team is not a constant group of players but essentially a transient one who only played with each other during national team competitions and who could build up the best team chemistry in such a short amount of time is usually the winner.

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  11. This problem has been the root of the issue since day one. Nothing new here. No competitive league, no competitive players. Cutillas has a right to shoot his mouth off just like the next guy. Now that there seems to be a demand, a season long league has to be put in place to address the problem. A league that can at least give players a decent salary so they can be called professionals. Iam not sure exactly how much players are being paid in the UFL (ive heard a team didnt even pay their players the measly allowances they were promised). But in the UFL at least you dont have to reinvent the wheel. There is an association of teams there, the PFF should work with them. Look a the schedules of the Indonesian, Thai and Malay leagues and try to coordinate the schedules. Bottom line is, the money that is being poured in right now (and the interest of companies to sponsors commercial teams) should be focused to establish such a league. We dont need another national cup tournament. Time to put a marketing plan together putting all these considerations into place, scheduling the league to end (or have breaks) during tournaments programmed for participation by the PFF (Suzuki Cup, SEa Games, Asian Cup qualifiers, etc.). This will ensure a team selection can be made no matter what the situation of the Fil foreigners. This issue of chemistry and players selection is the same issues bigger football nations face. In our situation, instead of the English Premier League and Spanish Primer Liga, we have the Hellenic, Icelandic and Spanish 3rd division to contend with (sounds so humbling but it is what it is). I agree we should always field the best team and the Fil Foreigners will always be welcome to join the team but we cant think of shifting the entire football program to suit their schedules. Geez. Thats would be crazy.

    The fil foreigners arent exactly superstars playing in top leagues in other countries. Some players are not even playing and are just employed in regular companies for schools. The PFF should look into the guidelines closely and see how much " international duty" they can bleed out of those teams. I mean how many FIFA sanctioned tournaments are we talking about for the Philippines? These "sanctioned" games are normally focused for the bigger tournaments for local clubs to cooperate. I mean it doesnt matter what FIFA sanctioned tournaments are if we cant even qualify for those. Rght now, tournaments like this AFC Challenge Cup is very important to our program. Iam pretty sure the AFC will be willing to help us with FIFA on this considering we are creating a new market for football and as seen in the Philippines, success on the pitch creates the needed impetus for private funding. We should take a look at our line up and create a desk to handle these issues per player. This kind of documentary intelligence and support will make a difference to us winning or losing a tournament. The PFF should stop making excuses, put their thinking caps on and create something. We can keep on bashing the PFF about this but the truth is maybe it is only now they are even close to having the support (both financial and administrative) to implement (not think about) this dream league. if someone can pull this off, he will go down in history as the father of Philippine football.

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  12. Thanks and no thanks. Thanks for giving media attention to the Azkals. But no thanks because the author does not know what he is talking about.

    Quinito, who do you think you are?

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  13. “The importance of the competition in Myanmar must inspire our team to be in the final stage of the Challenge Cup,” said Caslib. “Our motivation is we Filipinos are behind the Azkals. As for strategy, I think we should play our style of game, when to play direct and build up. We were affected by the absence of some key players in Mongolia even though Eduard Sacapano played decent in the match.”

    What style are you talking about, Aris? Is this the style that you used when your Natioanl coach? What have you accomplished? A 2 cent advice from a person who still an ambition to take over the national team. he-he-he

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  14. Oh thats low. Aris still accomplished more than most National Team coaches have except for McMenemy. When he took over those run of lop sided results in the Tiger Cup started to stop and we finally won a game. Much better than what Cutillas and that Japanese kambe ever did, We started becoming just a bit more respectable under his management even with some very young fil foreigners coming on.

    If you know Airs, he isnt one who will go somewhere if he isnt wanted. If he was hired as NT coach its because he was the only one with an A license at the time and the run of 8 NCCA titles with San Beda. At this point there are only two Filipinos coaches who have that A license so figure it out. Thing is when they ask him for a comment he will be gracious enough to give one so dont blast him if some people still puts some importance on his opinion.

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  15. Caslib may have an 'A' coaching license but it doesn't mean he still knows what he's doing!

    The guy had a bias for San Beda players, his coaching style doesn't reflect that of a coach with an 'A' license as his techniques are all fitness based. It's also because of that, that he had players walk out of the national team and never play for us again like Leigh Gunn.

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  16. Well, so which coach with an A license has the correct coaching style. An A license has to mean you are not clueless about the job considering theres only two Filipinos out there and we allegedly dropped Mcmenemy because he didnt have one. The PFF went with him because of his success at San Beda and with the A license, did they make a bad decision after being disappointed with all the previous foreign coaches? Iam not saying he's perfect but Ive never heard of a coach who has elicited good words from every player who trained under him.

    You disagree with the Coach, theres only gonna be one result. As an athlete, you have to play within a system, thats the way it is. Your there to play not to question tactics or routines or playing time and thats the way pure athletes think. As an athlete what else will your priority be except to be on the field doing what the coach asks of you?

    Caslib played under Bob Salvacion one of the strictest coaches who put value on fitness. Same Coach who turned UP's fortunes around in the UAPP during his time. Obviously, you get influenced by your own experience and if you are successful you replicate it. If you trained a Champion team you will have that tendency to select from that pool. Its the same for every coach whether its in HS or the top professional leaguea. You simply have more faith in players you see have delivered for you. If it wasnt Caslib and say it was Hans Smit, do you think he would not field players from a champion La Salle team? I dont think so.

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  17. Guys you can discuss and discuss whatever you want here. It seems useless cause I don't think PFF people would take time to read all these comments. PFF should send someone to a top ranking football systematic country in Europe like Germany to learn all these administrative stategy you are talking here. There's a lot of publicity going on, but no system. They should employ someone capable to sit, work and coordinate inside and outside of the Philippines. The PFF needs a brain, all they have at the moment are people who like to talk and if they have done something, make it look great. It's not actually easy for Mr. Weiss who comes from a very systematic football country and be trainer to a national team of a country who has no system at all.

    And I agree with all of you here, Philippines still needs the Fil-foreigners for support.

    Still I hope Philippines will improve from where we are now in the next years to come.

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  18. At Jay...

    "As an athlete, you have to play within a system, thats the way it is. Your there to play not to question tactics or routines or playing time and thats the way pure athletes think."

    Sure if the setup is professional or at least more professional than the norm in the Philippines. But let's take the case of Leigh Gunn as I've used. Although only a semi-pro footballer he was still used to a certain standard and would expect something close when being involved with the national team especially with an 'A' license coach (Caslib) at the helm. Gunn eventually got sacked from the squad because he questioned the conditions in which they were training in and because of the methods used by caslib, lots of long distance running and sprinting and they were getting injured. This was back in early November 2006 before the qualifiers for the '07 ASEAN C'ship. So in cases like this especially if you're one of the more experienced and senior players on the team like Gunn at that time, you're still not going to question the coach? Come on...

    "Caslib played under Bob Salvacion one of the strictest coaches who put value on fitness. Same Coach who turned UP's fortunes around in the UAPP during his time."

    I don't care if Caslib played football or not and who coached him and what methods were used, because you're mentioning college soccer. This discussion is about the national team and college soccer is obviously at a lower level than the national team.

    "Obviously, you get influenced by your own experience and if you are successful you replicate it. If you trained a Champion team you will have that tendency to select from that pool. Its the same for every coach whether its in HS or the top professional leaguea. You simply have more faith in players you see have delivered for you."

    Yes that's true. But like I said, that's college soccer this is the national team we're talking about. Just because certain methods or certain players worked out well at that level it does not mean it will work at international level which is the highest level. Therefore, being one of only two (or something like that) Filipino coaches who have the 'A' license, you would expect much better from him. You would expect him to be able have more in knowledge and be more flexible when coaching a college team and then switching to the national team. Flexible in terms of using different coaching methods to coach the other. But clearly he wasn't able to as demonstrated with the Leigh Gunn incident. It's still the same methods of fitness (sprinting, long distance running, etc.). So ya, as a coach, as an 'A' license coach at that, he's very questionable.

    "If it wasnt Caslib and say it was Hans Smit, do you think he would not field players from a champion La Salle team? I dont think so. "

    Again, it doesn't matter if it's Caslib, Hans Smit or whoever, if you're 'A' licensed coach you should be able to know that you can't just stuff the national with a bunch of college players who you've worked with and expect to be successful. The gap from college to the national is just too big. A coach like Caslib should know that.

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  19. For the most part you guys should pat yourselves on the back for coming out and taking the time to mind the football issues in our country. Some comments really rip it good and while the others sound a bit personal and slightly dull. Yet I read them still and try to get to his/her point. Each one has a story and I and many others have time to listen.

    I say each coach has his/her on philosophy in the ways he wants to run business in HIS house. If it's puke-pace long distance ultra runs and suicide sprints or maybe throw in a couple boxing matches at the end of the run, hey,
    the coach gets what the coach wants. It's the nature of the beast. One might ask a team to push a frikin tank and a good player even knowing that its impossible will make a good effort to push the gawdamn tank. Your ass is mine, you're in my house, you are gonna be in a world of shit, I am gonna run
    you out of this team if you so much as blink when im talking to you, type of
    coaches can make teams become the best that the team could be also. One
    way, "my way or the highway!" they always say. BUT NOT THIS WAY AS A
    COACH AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL.

    I dont think the "show-me-what-you-got-when-you-aint-got-nothing-left" philosophy of coaching will work there. But the players who arent up to snuff could be isolated and addressesed separately by a coaching staff dedicated
    to that kind of stuff. I think at that level the players should be responsible enough to take their own personal time to stay aerobically and anaerobically good to go. Hell if I were coach your ass shouldnt be on the list if you're not match fit. You want that spot, fight for it, earn it! If you fake the funk and do half-ass work ethic, you keep your ass on the bench.

    The one thing that I know for sure about the nature of team development is the leadership down in those ranks among the players. If the comunication lines are clear between the senior leadership and the coaching staff, I think
    the rest of the mechanics fall into place. But I truly believe that at any level a
    player should not challenge the methods of a coach, college, national or
    whatever level albeit certain exceptions like certain lines that on a personal
    basis cant be crossed. Even so, there's the other members of the coaching
    staff that might hear a particular grievance and is more in a position to bring
    that to the coaching table. Bottomline is professionalism.

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  20. By saying you dont care what his experience is basically expecting people to go against the grain of human behavior. You will always be influenced by your experience. Thats why you were hired based on your experience to bring success. For a coach that can only translate to the methods you use. I never said the level between college and the national team is the same, it would be immature to think that way. I remember the tournament in 2006 (it was the AFC Challenge Cup) that you may be talking about. We were so excited about it because it was the first time in a while the Azkals were joining again. Caslib had only two players from San Beda (Orcullo and Liman) on that team. Liman hardly got playing time during that stretch and was on the bench for the most part. He had another 3 college players on the official list (Gonzalez, who could out work anyone on that team. Valeroso, who scored against India and Perez who didnt make the first XI in any of the games) but the rest of the team were Army, Air Force and Kaya mainstays. So you maybe had at the most 3 college players in the line up at any given time. Hardly stuffing the team with college players and the ones who did play didnt disappoint. Heck Gonzalez, even pushing 30 today can still give some of today's tryouts a run for their money.

    After hiring Cutillas and a few Japanese coaches, where would the PFF go? Again he aint perfect, but I know a few college coaches who would have turned down that job because they knew about budget constraints.
    You want a professional set up? Did you know Caslib was at times, paying his own money for meals and transportation for the team? We had to pass the hat around at the club level to add to their budget. Hardly the ideal professional set up. We should ask those Japanese coaches what they think about the PFF when they were hired. So I can imagine how some players would be pissed that aside from the measley allowances theres this coach who is killing you in training but thats how it was in 2006. Now they get to train in Japan to prepare for one game. How times change huh?

    If you recall it was during Caslib's management in 2007 where he introduced James and the Greatwichs's. Paving the way for more of the fil foreigners to come in and results only improving after that. I think he knew what he was doing. I dont want to speak for Gunn as I dont know him, and he had his reasons but like I said, you complain to the coach there will only be one winner. I know that much is the same in HS and college and the NT.

    But hey, this is all water under the bridge. You have your opinion and I have mine. I respect yours and I replied. I appreciate your comments no matter if they go against mine. I know more now than before we started so I am cool with that.

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  21. Hey Sandugo, I wasnt replying to you, I was replying to the anonymous before me. Didnt know you were reading this. Good to hear your side again.

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  22. Jay,

    The issue here is aris' comment which is exactly opposite to Coach Weise style of play considering the difference of the pool of talent aris had during his time and Coach Weiss has today. I'm sorry but I can't accept comments like this especially coming from the technical director of the PFF.

    I wonder what will our grassroots development be if we have people who rely on experience alone and don't have the open mind to go what's new.

    He conducts coaching license seminars to educate wanna be coaches the principles of the game when in fact he himself does not adhere.

    It's okey if we give comments since we have nothing to do with Philippine Football but comments coming from a former national coach. geeez

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  23. no worries jay. you handle your stuff pretty well as usual. I wanted to back you up, not that you'd ever need one, but Im kinda behind the power curve on the characters issue. btw, dont you just hate the coverage blackout we're getting from Myanmar? It's not right. worse than doing labor in the hosp. But is what it is and it sucks!!!

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  24. To anonymous:

    Ok lets go back to what he said then. I was just reacting to all the other things that were brought up. Iam assuming this is what you are reacting to (not the part about the players should be inspired about the importance of the competition and scouting):

    "As for strategy, I think we should play our style of game, when to play direct and build up."

    I dont think he is claiming it is his (Aris) style or that we should resort to his old style? He could be referring to the style the team is more comfortable playing now which is why we tasted some success. Isnt that reasonable? He is talking about the decision when to play direct and to build up. Again, I dont see any reference to his style. If you want to make assumptions, maybe he was referring to the more defensive posture we took when Mcmenemy was in charge and hit the opponents on the counter attack. That never struck me as something Aris actively pursued. If ever, and this is making a big assumption, he is giving credit to Mcmenemy not himself. Weiss said he likes attacking football, but wouldnt you agree that if we played a more controlled passing game against Mongolia, maybe the outcome would have been different? If you look at Weiss resume, how much experience has he got playing teams in SE Asia? He was assistant coach for a Japanese professional team and then the China U-20's. Did they ever play teams from South East Asia on a regular basis? No. I would think Caslib has more experience than he has in playing in this neck of the woods. But before we open that can of worms, Iam not saying Aris is better than Weis. I am praying that Weis will do 100% more than what Aris ever did for the Azkals.

    I cant understand why you think these comments from a former coach is uncalled for. He was asked for his opinion precisely due to his experience and maybe his license. I'd love to give my 2 cents worth if Quinito asked me but thats why he sought Caslib because his opinion is based on experience and Iam just a die hard fan who likes to give his opinion same as you..

    When you talk about grassroots, its precisely about finding new talents and developing it, I dont see how we can relate this to what Caslib said or his coaching style which by the way was never stated except to say its not effective.

    Then you say he is doing these seminars for wanna be coaches basically being a hypocrite and not practicing what he preaches? Again, why bring this into our discussion if we are talking about his comments. But let me react to that. The only way you can get a license is if the one that conducts the seminar has a higher license and you have fulfilled a set of standards FIFA (through the AFC) has set. Its not about style or whether Caslib believes in them. Its a standard. Its there whether you believe in them or not. Caslib had to go to Thailand or Japan I think to get his. The only way these wannabe coaches can get it here is if Caslib and or Marlon (who was caslib's assistant since 2007) conducts the training. So every coach here who has a C or a B license had to attend these seminars unless they got it overseas or if a A licensed coach came here and gave it. So I would be careful who you want to accuse of being a wannabe coach as most of the coaches here in the Philippines had to go thru these guys. Thats a fact. Its basically their job to do this as part of the PFF because if they werent here, all these wannabe coaches would have to go overseas to get it and then where would our grassroots be. To say that he does not adhere to these principles is very subjective unless you have solid proof and is tantamount to discrediting him and the whole AFC license system. And why, because he made these comments?

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  25. Hey Sandugo, somehow I dont think that the Myanmar govt is the only issue. ABS CBN said they would do everything to show it delayed but it was initially stated that they werent going to show it because of the PBA commitments. Anyay, it is a drag. Its the first real tournament after the Suzuki Cup and just when so much people are anticipating it, this comes up.

    On this Caslib comments, I dunno. I just know the guy and felt compelled to make my opinion as you couldnt meet a more soft spoken coach who doesnt scheme to get things done. He certainly didnt want that job initially but thought of the honor of representing the country foremost so I think the comments were unfair. We keep on getting comments on how bad this is and how little we know about that but the truth of the matter is we never got to a level which was remotely successful. We were indeed that bad compared to our neighbors. 1 year ago, who would have dreamed we would be getting this much support and being able to address real problems Philippine football is facing?

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  26. Hey, anybody want a drink? Im making sisig for everyone! I'd rather be here with you guys than anywhere else right now. Well we cant really watch the game, can we now? but this is good shit, this right here. Keep it coming!

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  27. jay, you are a voice. i think everyone here knows that. you keepin it real, kabayan.

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  28. wow..sisig. sounds good..hehehe

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