Azkals’ stars join Bahrain camp

By MST Sports

 Even as the fate of ace striker Phil Younghusband and brother James was to be decided at a meeting of the top officials of Philippine football late yesterday, coach Michael Weiss indicated many of his stars currently playing in Europe will join an almost two-week camp in Bahrain, where they will play two or three matches.
Friendly matches against Bahrain on Oct. 12 and Kuwait on Oct. 16 are expected to be a stern test for the Azkals as they prepare for the Suzuki Cup from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1.
“I want to bring many players and I want to take the group that played here in the Peace Cup and the professionals will come in and we hope we can mix it well together because this is the main camp,” Weiss told the Manila Standard.
The Azkals ruled the Peace Cup last week, beating Guam, 1-0, crushing Macau, 5-0, and overcoming Chinese Taipei, 3-1, to win the Philippines’ first international tournament in 99 years, having captured the Far Eastern Games championship by beating China in 1913.
Weiss said Angel Guirado, who is now playing for a top club in India and his brother Juan, Dennis Cagara, Ray Jonsson, Jerry Lucena, hopefully Stephan Schrock, will be in the camp.
“It will be interesting to see how they mingle with the new players,” said Weiss.
Meantime, the qualifying tournament for the Suzuki Cup kicks off in Yangoon on Friday, with host Myanmar, which was Asian Cup runners-up in 1968 and Asian Games gold medalists in 1966 and 1970, trying to recapture its glory days.
Myanmar, which figured in a scoreless draw with the Philippines in 2010, finished at the bottom of Group B after losing to Vietnam and Singapore.
In order to qualify for the Suzuki Cup this year, they need to finish among the top two in the group that includes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Timor Leste, with Laos, which qualified along with the Philippine Azkals, looking good in their build-up to the qualifiers.

Manila Standard