Male: Coach Thomas Dooley believes the Philippines have a bright future despite Friday's heartbreaking AFC Challenge Cup final defeat by Palestine.
The Philippines, who finished third at the previous edition in 2012, had progressed to their first AFC Challenge Cup final with an unbeaten record only to 1-0 to Palestine at the National Stadium.
But despite the Philippines seeing their hopes of a first-ever appearance at the AFC Asian Cup dashed following the defeat, Dooley is confident of continued progress from the two-time AFF Championship semi-finalists.
"My task was to win the Challenge Cup and I didn't," said Dooley, who was appointed in February.
"But on the other hand, I was trying to build something with the team and I think we did a pretty good job through to the final, so I think this team has a bright future. If we continue to work hard and find more young players, I think we will have a great future."
Third-choice goalkeeper Patrick Deyto was the only player not used by Dooley in the five games, with teenagers Kenshiro Daniels, Amani Aguinaldo and Daisuke Sato as well as 20-year-old OJ Porteria all gaining valuable experience during the tournament.
"The young players are the future, so we have to find players and we have to develop the players," added Dooley.
"Sato is 19 years old, Amani is 19 years old, and OJ and Ken who came in, they have a future in the national team. It doesn't mean we want to kick the old players out, but maybe the pace of the game will be better and it is good to have a young average age, especially with young players who can develop."
Palestine striker Ashraf Al Fawaghra scored the only goal of the final with a free-kick a minute before the hour mark, with the Philippines unable to find a response after 2012 AFC Challenge Cup top scorer Phil Younghusband missed their best chance four minutes before half-time.
"It was a tough game. The boys played hard and played good and I am proud of everyone who was in the team who played at this tournament," said Dooley.
"We had a good tournament; we just didn't get the final result we were looking for.
"Palestine have a great team and nobody scored against them. We tried to, and we were close a couple of times, but it didn't work out.
"But overall, I am happy with the way they team played at this tournament."
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7 hours ago
Mr. Dooley, if you want to see a bright future, please kick those assholes asses who prevent U23/U20 teams from participating Asian competitions. Vietnam Football Federation, for example, gives their best support to their U19 team, who have been trained together under Arsenal's Vietnam-based academy, and they even defeated Australia U19 in the last year's AFC U19 qualifiers, by an unbelievable scoreline 5-1. They are now preparing AFC U19 finals this year and eyeing for a slot in the FIFA U20 World Cup next year. So, what the bloody fck are we doing? Just looking for another available fil-fors like hyena ? Sato, Aguinaldo, OJ, Kenshiro, these guys need to experience as many international games possible, and operating U20/U23 teams properly would be perfect for them to improve. But our retarded administrators are again not sending football team in the upcoming Asian Games where you could experience formidable U23 teams all around Asia.
ReplyDeleteWe need to get rid of the dinosaurs in the PFF like Araneta, Caslib, Carmona etc. These guys are incompetent. Maybe Rob Gier or Darren Hartmann can help Philippine football if they join the PFF in a higher capacity. They are outside the box thinkers that can make things happen. Time to get rid of the dinosaurs.
DeleteMagaling lng yan si Aris Caslib sa theory (although he's an AFC Elite Instructor) but is very poor in application. But let us give him a benefit of the doubt dahil puro appointed nya mga coaches sa Youth teams like U12, U14 and U16. We'll see kung magagaling ba mga coaches na inilagay nya doon.
ReplyDeleteCountries like Brazil roll out talented footballers like cars on a production line. That's because nearly every kid learns all the basic skills without coaching by kickabouts with his pals on any spare space or beach.
ReplyDeleteFilipino kids could be the same if enough unselfish land-owning souls could donate those spaces and supply even the cheapest plastic footballs.
brazil's prospects are picked up early on by club youth teams and progress within the club system... club youth team makes a whole lot of difference in developement.. i just hope the UFL is strong enough and becomes a real pro league to start scouring the country for young talents to develop...
DeleteOur kids wanna be like mike,cobe, James or James yap, they know messi,ronaldo, but they don't idolize them like they did on basketball stars, so first u most let them love the game before they play it, that is what the PFF are doing, they make known this game by having fil-pro to show them that we Filipino can play this, so they must win big games first before our kids realize that there are space for small filipino like us on this game, ratherhan basketball who needed to be tall.... I guess that is the agenda of PFF first stage let them love the game before they play it....
Deletethe best way to make the kids idolize someone is through sensational media. jordan was idolized because of how the media portrayed him, and so are other sporting greats... Yes they are great players, but without the epic, sensationalized highlights, reliving great moments is huge... :D But really kids must be exposed to the game constantly. Playing the game at school or just having a kick in the streets is a great thing.
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