MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals may have to plug in a huge hole in the central defense when they go back to camp in January as team captain Aly Borromeo suffered an ACL injury that could sideline him for six months.
Borromeo hurt his knee during Kaya Cignal FC’s 3-2 win over Victory Liner Diliman last Saturday in the United Football League Cup at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
According to Philippine Football Federation president Nonong Araneta, MRI test on Borromeo confirmed the ACL injury, which puts in doubt the status of the veteran defender for the Azkals’ eventual campaign in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup in March 2012.
“It depends on how soon he’ll recover. But if he can’t make it in time for the AFC Challenge Cup, we have to look for other defenders to fill up the slack,” said Araneta.
The PFF chief is monitoring the situation from Laos, where he’s attending the AFF Women’s Championship.
Borromeo, for his part, promised to be back.
“Thank u for all the warm messages and support guys... I’ll be back out there in no time!” he posted on Twitter yesterday.
The Azkals are on a break after beating Nepal, 4-0, in a Fifa-sanctioned friendly and players have since returned to their respective clubs both here and abroad.
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16 hours ago
Hopefully Lucena can play in his place. Or this will also give us another chance to develop some talent behind AlyBor. the back four is getting older and most of the new talent seems to be mostly on the wings.
ReplyDeleteSo you want to use a major tournament to blood new talent? Horrible idea!
ReplyDeleteYou have any other suggestions at the back besides using Alybor on one knee? :) Oh and pls dont mention Sabio. We saw how that turned out when Aly served out his suspension. Gener to plug in the hole? as he seems to be Weiss' bandaid to almost any hole. So in short, you don't have too many options right now.
ReplyDeleteBesides, Lucena's played Div 1 football in Denmark and Cagara did too. "New" as they are, they do have game.
Lucena and Cagara don't count as "blooding new talent" as they're already experienced pros. Would've thought you knew that. Plus Cagara won't be used as a CB if he's available.
ReplyDeleteAs for Sabio... wow, slating him because of one performance against a superior side such as Kuwait. Good job. :p
Anyway, as for possible options, there's Anton and Sabio.
damn we can always have conversations here with some smartass hiding behind anonymous.
ReplyDeleteI think i found Sabio's play during the Azkals vs UFL all stars wanting as well.
ReplyDeleteI'd go with Anton at CB and Cagara take his rightful place at fullback, switching up with Jonnson if need be.
perhaps he meant, "work in relatively new talent to the team".
Mapster, there is Oliver Poetschke who played beside Aly Borromeo in LONG TENG CUP..
ReplyDeleteand what you want with ANTON DEL ROSARIO ..
Mr. Weiss told me in FEBUARY that he wanted to kick him out .. now he is out :) .. Mr. Weiss opinion in Febuary that he is to slow and undisciplined ( the Amanda Coling scandal committed it.. very pity .. but bad behavours should no accepted in Azkals ).
I would not good to do bad character players into a team.
We will see what will be the future of Azakls.
hahaha! i thought paul weiler is already dead.
ReplyDeleteHi Oliver, i guess we lost another defender then. I played with anton in high school. He's no doubt a tireless runner but he can be undisciplined on the pitch, and as you noted, off it as well.
ReplyDeleteBut i agree, bad characters shouldn't be allowed on the pitch nor near the team.
Hopefully we can find more talent to play at the back after losing both Aly and Anton. I think one guy who deserves a shot is Anto Gonzales. Despite his diminutive size, he's got one heck of a nose for the ball.
The injury of Borromeo is indeed a big loss for the Azkals Challenge cup campaign. I think Poetschke is no alternative. I mean on that level you need an experienced player and not a (for sure talented) player of a 6th division club. We need one of our best players to fill in the gap but that will become quite difficult as I suppose that we just start with the Long Leng Cup squad there (minus Borromeo). I don't think the European clubs will release our Euro based players....espcially Schrock, Mulders, Cagara, Lucena and Jonsson.
ReplyDeleteThis tournament will be on a higher level than the Long Teng Cup (India, North Korea etc.) and also Nepal will for sure be stronger (to defend their home turf and advantage). A real difficult mission but nevertheless crossing my fingers for the tournament