Philippine Daily Inquirer
Armed with more experience and more games together, the Philippine Azkals leave for Bangkok today with high hopes that they can put up a strong showing in the AFF Suzuki Cup, the same tournament that served as launching pad to the renaissance of football in the country two years ago.
The Azkals went on to make the semifinals two years ago with little expectations, but it will be a different story this time with the country seen as a contender in the most prestigious tournament in the region.
“I think we have prepared well and have experienced players which gives us a lot of confidence,” said striker Phil Younghusband, who scored two goals in the Azkals’ run to the semifinals in 2010.
The Azkals will still have four days before they kick off their campaign against host and three-time champion Thailand on Saturday and coach Michael Weiss said the time left will be spent working on the finer details of their battleplan.
Aside from Thailand, the Azkals are also grouped with 2008 champion Vietnam and Myanmar.
“We’ll have four sessions in Thailand and it will be intense,” said Weiss.
Since Philippines is now on par with Kuwait/Bahrain level we will easily take over this shit title. No doubt about it. And at this rate, in 5 years teams like Japan and South Korea will bow to us and we will conquer the whole Asia. In 10 years ? Sandro Reyes and other talented youngsters will lead us to a place where no other Asians can't even dare to look at.
ReplyDeleteLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Deleteha ha ha... you are right!!! in fact i'm teaching right now kids in the province which can beat those teams in Bacolod, Cebu Davao and Manila...try to watch them!!!
ReplyDeleteAnything is possible. Walang masamang mangarap libre yan. Gaya nang ginawa ni Palami para sa NT.
ReplyDeleteGinawa talaga nya ang lahat nang posible at legal na paraan to improve our team.
Never again we will be looked down by our SEA neighbors.
I'm sure they expect a fight to the finish from us.
GO NT. THE BUS IS ROLLING.
Yes, libre mangarap. But there's a fine line between dreaming and being realistic and not being deluded!!
DeleteNever again be looked down?!? Outside of the senior national team we're a complete joke!! And even then, the only reason why we're more competitive now is because of the many foreign born players that we have and continue to be discovered! Take that away and we're back to pre-2010, being a complete joke at senior level! So it's not like Palami had some sort of magic wand that transformed the national team. Anyone with half a brain would've realized that we needed to look abroad for players who are playing at a decent level to strengthen the NT and be competitive!! Palami gets way too much credit and its ridiculous!!
foreign bred players develop the national team..
Deletenational team develops - local football develops..
local football develops - better local pool of players to choose from..
better pool of local players - eliminates need to scout for foreign bred players..
try to look at the bigger picture and dont think so short term.
all criticisms, no depth in thinking.
Anonymous20 November 2012 09:22
ReplyDelete"Well my friend...just look at where we are now from 162 to 143 in rankings. We are considered at this rank in the World kung walang magandang nagawa ang NT.
But I guess you are 10 times having a brain than I am so you won't appreciate something nice by a "half brained guy>"
HILARYO....
Take away our foreign based players and field homegrown players against Thailand and rest of SEA and see what happens. Singapore may rely on naturalized players, but look at Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and so on. They have homegrown players, and our best homegrown players cant even beat a Thai 2nd division club. What does that tell us?
ReplyDeleteThere are no good talent development in the Philippines atm. The U14 teen azkals may have had some decent results, but the gap between them and the rest of the world and SEA gets bigger and bigger when they grow older. And a regular U14 club team anywhere in the world can beat the crap out of them.
Dont forget that players like Dennis Cagara didnt want to suit up for the Philippines years ago, when his career was on top, and when the azkals still was the whipping boys of Asia. He was danish and not filipino according to himself. Now they all wanna take part coz everything is paid for, unlike in the past, and its more fun now rather than in the past when the azkals struggled big time.
Philippine football is all about the azkals and Dan Palami. It will take more than 10 years to catch up with the rest of SEA and Asia when it comes to developing talents. We arent even close. Filipinos are proud and optimistic, but comments like the first comment in this article is pure BS. The person who wrote that clearly dont know anything about football.
Nothing new about the use of foreign-based players. take them out from basketball NT(where we pride ourselves to be one of the best) and we will not even be close to the top in asia. take them out from the volcanoes and we're nada.
ReplyDeleteout of the 3 top ranked pinoy boxers today, 2-donaire and viloria are not home grown. you better take this thinking out of the equation because this is true in all our sports. we are now relying on our international talent pool.
even our age groups can be very strong teams if we get from our foreign based pinoys. what is wrong with that???
If there were no fil=foreigners, there will be no interest in football by the general public. In the future, we will be able to combine the best local and best overseas available.
ReplyDeleteOpak Gambir Mania mendukungmu...
ReplyDeletefil-for players is good as of now.....but development for the local will be the key and always will be japan take 3 decades inorder to produce homegrown players to achieve a spot in the world cup....relying from them is not a long term solution...10 years from is achievable if the under 12, 14 and 16 will be house and trained inorder for the team to be achieved.
ReplyDelete