Azkals to play 4 tuneup games in Germany

MANILA—The Philippine National Football Team will be up for the challenge of high-level training in Germany and will face foreign squads in preparation for its first round World Cup qualifier stint this June 29 in Sri Lanka.

The second leg will be on July 3 in Manila.


The team left for Duren, Germany last midnight to attend a two-week intensive training camp centered on team cohesion and team play. Head coach Hans Weiss left ahead of them to arrange the camp.

As the team will be leaving the country, team manager Dan Palami said that this will help them fully focus on what has to be done.

Aside from conditioning and strength exercises, there are also scheduled matches against second and third-division teams from Germany that will help the team evaluate their preparation for the Sri Lanka game.

“They will be playing against strong teams,” said Dan Palami.

A team based in Duren, which played against formidable German club Bayern Munich, will be the first match of the team on June 15.

They are also set to face an under-19 squad from Bern on June 17 before they play with FC Ingolstadt on June 22.

Their last match will be against Darmstadt Achtung 98 on June 24 and the team will fly for Sri Lanka on June 26.

The 23-man squad will be finally complete as the other Europe-based players like Angel Aldeguer and Roy Johnsson will in the Germany training camp.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on June 12, 2011.