Doha: Thomas Dooley remains focused on the job in hand as the Philippines seek to edge a step closer to a maiden AFC Asian Cup appearance in 2019 despite having to deal with a raft of injuries ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with Yemen.
Javier Patino, Amani Aguinaldo, Luke Woodland and Misagh Bahadoran were already ruled out of the trip to Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Stadium for the Group F leaders.
Influential midfielder Manny Ott then suffered a medial collateral ligament injury in training in Doha and now also faces a spell on the sidelines.
Dooley has bolstered his ranks with the addition of uncapped Sean Patrick Kane from JPV Marikina FC and Jess Melliza from Stallion Laguna, with defender Daisuke Sato also making a timely return from suspension.
“It is a very important game obviously for all of us. If we win it will be huge for our goal to qualify for the Asian Cup. If we tie, we are still in a good position to qualify.
"We have two chances to score the necessary points to qualify. If we lose we still have it in our hands to qualify, but we have a lot of injuries,” said Dooley, confirming Ott is also expected to miss November’s trip to Nepal.
The Philippines and Yemen shared an entertaining 2-2 draw in Bacolod City in September to leave Dooley’s charges two points clear at the top of the table, but crucially four ahead of third-place side Tajikistan.
“The good thing is we have new players who jumped out into training looking sharp, looking good,” added Dooley. “We will try to do the best we can and hopefully we have a successful game.
“You can change if somebody can’t play because of an injury, you try to find ways, solutions to make it right.
“We have players who, when you talk to them personally, think they can play better and that they should play. This is their chance to show why they should play.”
Yemen twice took the lead last month in the Philippines, but on both occasions, were pegged back by the home side to add to their opening 2-1 win over Tajikistan and draw in Nepal.
Captained by Alaa Al Sasi, Yeman are also seeking to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup for the first time, with Abraham Mebratu’s side two points clear of Tajikistan ahead of their visit of Nepal.
“Our players have good ambitions, talent and determination while we also have a good technical staff who knows how to deal with the players,” said Yemen captain Al Sasi.
“We have played three matches in the group and achieved good results. Our aim is to finish on top of the group, and hopefully we can do that to bring joy to our people.
“We had a preparatory camp in Egypt which was useful for us. The level of the players improved recently and we are also good physically and mentally.
“We have left Yemen with one goal which is to qualify to the Asian Cup and bring joy to our people who are going through difficult times recently."
Tajikistan finally kick-started their campaign on Matchday Three with a 2-1 win over Nepal and Khakim Fuzaylov’s team will be aiming for a repeat of that result to keep their Asian Cup qualifying hopes alive when the teams meet in Dushanbe on Tuesday evening.
tv coverage?
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