Azkals face QSL club Al Ahli test in Doha

By CHRIS V PANGANIBAN


DOHA: The highly popular Philippine national football team Azkals will see action in a friendly match against Qatar Stars League (QSL) club Al Ahli on February 13, their debut game in Qatar which is expected to draw an estimated 20,000 crowd.

Hussein Al Amri, General Manager of Al Ahli Club, has agreed with Media Pro, a sports marketing firm based in Dubai, to bring the much adored Azkals team composed mostly of talented young players who are European born but with Filipino roots.

Organiser Pinoy Football Qatar is optimistic about the huge spectators turn out especially that the two famous brothers, Phil and James Younghusband will surely play along with other equally popular team-mates Neil Etheridge, Stefan Shrock, Manuel Ott and Paul Mulder.

Vice Consul Jabbar Adiong of the Philippine Embassy in Qatar has assured they will fully support the event by sending memorandum to all Filipino community groups to help in spreading the information.

It would be another acid test for the Azkals team already making waves in the Southeast Asian football front as they will face the highly-competitive Al Ahli Football Club which Al Amri said most of his players have played for Qatar in global competitions.

“I’m sure Filipinos will love the friendly match,” Al Amri told The Peninsula. He said the choice of the date on February 13 at 7:00 pm is a perfect time since everybody will be relaxing on the eve of the holiday, the Qatar National Sports Day.

“This will be a great chance for us to see live in action the famous Azkals,” said Denrie Catalan, president of Pinoy Football Qatar. He said they have worked out for the Azkals stint in Qatar for more than a year through consistent follow up with Philippine Football Federation.

Peninsula Qatar