By Cheska D. Geli
Thursday, October 20, 2011
“IT seems that we are in favorable group,” Philippine Under 23 team manager Dan Palami said the team got a break after getting a favorable group in the Southeast Asian Games this November.
The Philippines is in Group B with 2009 runner-up Vietnam, semifinalist Laos, Timor Leste, Myanmar and Brunei, avoiding powerhouse teams Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, which are in Group A along with Cambodia.
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However, Palami the draw is not a reason to be complacent as the other teams are also
working hard for the first place finish.
“It’s not a walk in the park that’s why we need to train harder,” said Palami.
Though Timor Leste and Laos maybe considered minnows, both countries have started a grassroots program two years ago that is focused on its Under 23 and Under 19 teams.
The Philippine team will be led by veterans Manny Ott and Jason de Jong, who have both played for the senior team in the Suzuki Cup preliminaries. Carlos de Murga, Jeffrey Christiaens and siblings Mark and Martthew Hartmann, who all played for the senior team in the Long Teng Cup, will also be in the squad.
Roland Mueller will man the goal in place of Neil Etheridge, who is busy with his career in Fulham, though the PFF is trying to negotiate with Etheridge’s club to make him available for the SEA Games.
Palami also said that a gold medal is a good motivation for the team, but for now, a more realistic goal is to reach the semifinals, to duplicate the Philippines best finish during the 1991 SEA Games.
“We have young and good players. It’s a more decent lineup and stronger,” Palami said.
The team will leave for a weeklong training camp in Japan on Oct. 21 and they are set to play three games against different universities.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 21, 2011.
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16 hours ago
"Palami also said that a gold medal is a good motivation for the team, but for now, a more realistic goal is to reach the semifinals"
ReplyDeleteLOL! Obviously it's more realistic to just reach the semis than to aim for gold but it doesn't mean that it IS realistic to even reach the semis!
Sometimes Palami should just learn to shut it instead of talkin bollocks. For a person who's position within the national team setup is supposed to be more behind the scenes, he sure blabbers way too much to the press/media. We really should be hearing more from Weiss not from him. Plus, Weiss talks more sense.
Hope they win in this next Southeast Asian Games this November. :)
ReplyDeleteUnited Football League Cup
U23 Filipino too strong this year! the terrible truth. U23 Philippines hoped to achieve good results at the SEA Games 2011.
ReplyDeleteWe should massively citizenship so many players all over the world, we can use this money to do that, we can not train an average quality players so we required citizenship must be a lot like Mancity, Real to compete against rivals in the region and the world /.
fuck up! Filipino football is more active fire weakest in the world of training players, if the Philippines can train the players compete in the arena is a success in football history Filipino.
ReplyDeleteHopefully more decades absolutely Filipino can use to train players to play is a joy and pride for the football so many of our weakness and the pride of the nation, the the country.