More changes coming soon?

 By Erel Cabatbat

Some enterprising fans of the men’s national football team, or formerly known as the Azkals, have been going out of their way in finding answers to the pressing question of whether the current coach will still call the shots in next month’s resumption of the World and Asian Cup qualifiers

The Philippine Football Federation has remained mum on this matter and as expected, is also not helping. It only adds more to the anxiety and concerns of fans, who are eagerly awaiting developments on the team.

But if The Designated Kit Man is made to believe, changes will be forthcoming soon in the team. Several sources have said that a new coach is coming to replace Hans Michael Weiss. In fact, this incoming coach is reportedly bringing with him some of his people from his previous spell from another national team. The sources added, too, that his team will be bolstered by local officials, who will complement and complete his coaching staff.

According to the same sources, Weiss will not be completely out of Philippine football altogether, but he will be asked, instead, to handle one of the national youth teams.

As of the moment, Weiss still has a valid contract with the national men’s football team until the end of the year. Another source said an official announcement will be made in the next few days to clarify the status of the head coach.

But again, not until the PFF makes the official announcement then these pieces of information remain nothing but speculations.

The Designated Kit Man tried to reach out to Weiss, but the German coach remained tight-lipped about his tenure. He, however, gave a short reply. “We will see a decision by February 29,” he replied.

I guess a little bit more to know the real score on this nagging issue.

Equally as anticipated is the composition of the squad that will see in an away-and-home series against Iraq next month. As of now, there’s no official announcement yet on who will be called to join the national training pool.

Just like the status of the coach, the list of players coming back to the country or who are already here remains a matter of speculation, too. There were earlier reports that Santino Rublico will return to the team. The problem is, even if Rublico comes back, he can only play one game against Iraq. He has accumulated two yellow cards from his previous game, so he will serve an automatic one-game suspension.

Just like other reports, Rublico’s coming is yet to be confirmed. There were also rumors that the PFF has reached out to Sebastian Ramussem, Raphael Obermair, several current and prospective Azkals in the past few weeks, but there is no way for me to confirm. Just like the rest, I will have to wait for the PFF to make the official announcement.

On the upswing, the decision to let overseas-based players make the initial efforts in making themselves available for the national team is much welcome. Players, who have the potential to play for the national team are advised to come to the country first, try out and show what they are made of is intriguing and probably good in the long run. At least, on the bare minimum, there is the obvious and concrete manifestation of the desire to play for the national team, simply because they want to do so and not for anything else. This will also help in weeding out those “pabebe” Azkals wannabes, who think that playing for the three stars and the sun is the last resort in their careers.

We can’t blame them actually, considering the state of football in the country, where it is desperate to gain popularity and support from Filipinos, who are so crazy with basketball and volleyball. Compared to other countries, to say football is among the top 5 sports in the Philippines is such a stretch.

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