15 March 2011

Reinforcements for group stage in Myanmar ?

BY BONG PEDRALVEZ


Araneta said with the possible return of Neil Etheridge, Rob Gier and possibly three new reinforcements–Fil-Danish Jerry Lucena and Dennis Caraga and Fil-Spanish Angel Guirado–the Filipinos’ chances in Myanmar look good.

Lucena, Caraga and Guirado, who stands 6-foot-3, are all attacking midfielders and will be a big boost to the offense of the nationals, whose limited attack options once again showed yesterday.

The Azkals will certainly need their help after striker Phil Younghusband was sidelined late in the second half with a pulled hamstring and will miss their next overseas outing.

The Philippine contingent is scheduled to return to Manila at 1 a.m. tomorrow, giving the Azkals two days of rest before heading to the Myanmar capital of Yangon on Saturday.

Malaya.com

30 comments:

  1. "Lucena, Caraga and Guirado, who stands 6-foot-3, are all attacking midfielders"...

    Misinformed journalism yet again! Lucena is a defensive midfielder and Cagara is a left back.

    I also doubt that Cagara will join the team. There also might be doubts with Lucena as he still seems unsure if he wants to play for the Philippines.

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  2. what happened to Stephan Schrock?

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  3. Hope the Danish Fil-Foreigners will make up their mind soon as we need all reinforcements to get qualified as one of the 2 best ranked in the upcoming group stage in Myanmar .... especially due to the injury of Phil which is a big loss of our creativity in the offense.

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  4. Lucena wants to play. He has repeatedly said so. He just doesn't want to upset his club. It will depend on what his club says since the AFC Challenge Cup is only considered a friendly tournament acc. to FIFA. The club has no obligation to release him.
    Cagara is a different manner. He is still not fully comitted. Hopefully he makes up his mind before WC qualifying.

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  5. But all those statements that he made saying he wants to play were all made before he came out and said that "the players are very unprofessional". Or something along those lines.

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  6. According to who?

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  7. Lucena himself!

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  8. sensitive ah.

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  9. "UNPROFESSIONAL ACTIONS inside PFF" - I think ito yung sinasabi nyo na sinabi ni Lucena. Totoo naman dba?

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  10. What do you mean 'why'? He just did. Go find a way to ask him.

    "Unprofessional actions inside PFF"... no not regarding that. He's referring specifically about the players.

    There was a Danish article where he said so. So it's his opinion of his time training with the national team early last month. And based on those comments by him, there would be doubts if he is still keen to play for the Philippines.

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  11. I read all those Danish articles(translated) and what he meant is that the players were not as disciplined or organized as professional players in Europe were. He is just used to having rules imposed by the team like always being on time(Filipino time is definitely a no no), cell phone conversations not allowed on the team bus as well not as having fans so close to the team during training, etc. He also mention that he recognizes that it is a different culture and that he was looking forward to the adventure. He said that he was going to work with his club but that his club would take precedence over national team duties. This are all paraphrased of course.,

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  12. These players should get agents who should do the talking. At this point its all speculation. Like it or not, agents or publicists are a necessary evil these days. Just look at what happened to Donaire and washing his dirty laundry in public. His image has taken a beating. Same in this guys situation. The Azkals are hot copy right now and all these unofficial statements will affect the situation. Just look how ABS covered the Mongolia game. They had no less than 5 panelists! Talk about overkill. You just need two guys, maybe a third as the anchor. Why dont they watch how star sports covers the premier league. They dont need to reinvent the wheel.

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  13. here is an example of an article:

    http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bold.dk%2Fnyt%2FLucena-har-mod-paa-mere-landsholdsbold&sl=da&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8

    Lucena has on more team ball

    Jerry Lucena has just returned from a training camp with the Philippine national team, and AGF-player clearly has the courage anymore.
    30-year-old Jerry Lucena was born in Denmark, but the father is Filipino, and after several tributaries and inquiries from the Filipino associations through the years, Lucena so just now returned to AGF after a training camp with the Philippine national team.

    - It was a really good experience. It was exciting to be down there and see it all. It has only been positive, so I can take on more. I'm glad that I took the decision to give it a chance, "says Jerry Lucena to AGF's website.

    - I do not yet know when I can play for the Philippines. There is no paperwork, which must first be in place and when it's done, I'll look at the dates along with AGF. It all must fall appropriate for both club and me, "says AGF's right-back.

    Lucena said there were plenty of talented footballers at the meeting, but he also stresses that the difference between the best and worst players were bigger than he was accustomed.

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  14. Further, I agree with the first posting. These journalists are making like they are so damm informed about all these players and the whole situation in general. First it was Villaflor, now its this guy. Has anyone actually seen tapes of these guys? Why make all these presumptions about these players if you havent seen them play one whole game? Your gonna get lambasted by people in the know. These guys have been writing so long some times they believe in their egos too much and forget all about responsible journalism.

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  15. As I mentioned the other article where he was quoted that the players were not as professional as in Europe also quoted him as saying he was looking forward to the adventure.

    Dennis Cagara on the other hand, still harbors hopes of joining the Danish team plus the fact that his priority right now is to get a contract with a team since he is still recovering from a serious injury. So he decided to postpone his decision.

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  16. Hey Jonny why did you remove the danish article. Here it is again:

    http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bold.dk%2Fnyt%2FLucena-har-mod-paa-mere-landsholdsbold&sl=da&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8


    Lucena has on more team ball

    Photo: Jesper Zacho / agf-foto.dk
    Infobox
    bold.links
    Friendlies
    Philippines
    Jerry Lucena has just returned from a training camp with the Philippine national team, and AGF-player clearly has the courage anymore.
    30-year-old Jerry Lucena was born in Denmark, but the father is Filipino, and after several tributaries and inquiries from the Filipino associations through the years, Lucena so just now returned to AGF after a training camp with the Philippine national team.

    - It was a really good experience. It was exciting to be down there and see it all. It has only been positive, so I can take on more. I'm glad that I took the decision to give it a chance, "says Jerry Lucena to AGF's website.

    - I do not yet know when I can play for the Philippines. There is no paperwork, which must first be in place and when it's done, I'll look at the dates along with AGF. It all must fall appropriate for both club and me, "says AGF's right-back.

    Lucena said there were plenty of talented footballers at the meeting, but he also stresses that the difference between the best and worst players were bigger than he was accustomed.

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  17. Cagara never wanted to play for the Philippines in the first place. His comments years ago was "Im danish, not filipino". But now with the recent success of the azkals, and with his career going downhill, and dont deny that its going downhill, coz it really is, he wants to revive his glory days by maybe suiting up for the azkals and getting some media coverage. He was a decent player when he played for Hertha Berlin, but after that 2nd Bundesliga and several loans here and there was inline for him. He is still young, but he should give up the danish national team. It will never happen unless a miracle occurs regarding his form and lost talent.

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  18. And for Lucenas comments about the gap of the quality between players, well, lets say he hit the nail with that comment.

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  19. The danish comments after the article that Cagara gave about postponing his decision pretty much said the same thing that his chances of making the Danish team is not good, as he is relatively old to be making a debut on the team, injured too often, has too many players ahead of him, and has no contract with any team. They even advised him to be realistic and switch.

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  20. I don't think it is fair to blame Dennis Cagara for feeling Danish. Not only was he born and grew up there, he played for the Danish youth teams at every level and joining national teams tends to increase your identification with that country.

    Now that he is getting older though with little chance of playing for the Dane's mens team, he should consider switching to us. In time, if he plays for us, he will I'm sure feel more attached to his father's country of origin and start exploring his roots.

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  21. Money is still the priority for Dennis Cagara. The Danish training method will hardly work in the Philippines ASAP.

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  22. Does anyone know the numbers in terms of how much these FilFors are getting or being offered? What's the current "market" on these skills here?

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  23. Neil just tweeted that Fulham has given him permission to go to Myanmar because it is on international break.

    "yeah well its an international break from club football so yes they have allowed me to join the team"

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  24. jay,

    i can assure you that if you get into an argument with that villaflor guy, you're going to weep. i've read his comments to basketball turds on the pinoyfootball page on fb and man, the guy can get really nasty to the point he left one poster sleepless. and he didn't have to use an alias like what you're doing right now and in previous posts! but you're obsessed with him, that's obvious, and wouldn't mind.

    now this i think must be pointed out. he's writing a sports opinion column, for crissakes, and that's a completely different animal from a sports news report. at least know the distinction between the two before you even begin to discuss responsible journalism. besides, you're the one who's attacking his person (e.g. his "ego") instead of his opinions, and now were supposed to take you seriously about responsible journalism?

    then again, small minds often resort to ad hominem when they don't have much to say.

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  25. Ready for Myanmar :
    - Neil Etheridge
    - Rob Gier
    - Angel Aldeguer
    - William Espinosa Guerridon
    - Patrick Hinrichsen

    Doubtful :

    - Jerry Lucena
    - Dennis Cagara
    - Jason De Jong
    - Phil Younghusband

    not going :

    - Chris Greatwich
    - Stephan Schrock

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  26. What about Simon Greatwich?

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  27. I only mentioned reinforcements , Simon played in Mongolia and I expect all who played in Mongolia to be ready for Myanmar except Phil Y.

    Inquirer.net reported now that Lucena and Caraga will not be going to Myanmar.

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  28. This is an example of why the European professional players are much more disciplined than our local players as described by Angel Guirado's aunt Gloria Garcia when referring to her nephew:

    “Angel is very disciplined,” said Garcia. “He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke. Before he goes on a holiday, his Spanish coaches weigh him. When he comes back, they check his weight and if he has gained pounds, he pays a penalty. During the season, he doesn’t go out at night. If he does and gets caught, he pays a penalty. They’re very strict in Spain and Angel doesn’t mind. He’s careful not to gain weight especially when he visits Manila and hangs out with his cousins.”

    Guirado said one of his advantages as a player is he’s quick for his height (6-2) and that’s because his weight (195 pounds) is just right.

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  29. Dennis Cagara has been signed by Randers FC until the end of the season June 2011.

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