Azkals begin Suzuki Cup campaign vs Singapore

The Philippine Na-tional Football Team begins its Suzuki Cup 2016 campaign as it faces Singapore today at the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bocaue, Bulacan.

“Obviously they’re important players and they will be missed”.

Younghusband knows dropping points from the first match could put the Azkals in a hard situation of needing to play catch-up for the rest of the group stages. “We want to be successful and make the people of the Philippines happy”.

Dooley talked about their Azkals’ chances during a press conference yesterday at the Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas.

Sundram has been vocal about his team’s inability to find the back of the net (four goals in their last eight games) despite having the likes of experienced campaigners in their ranks.

Sportradar MD Integrity Services Andreas Krannich added: “We have been partnering with the AFF for the past three years and we applaud the federation’s commitment to integrity”.

Vietnam was to be Malaysia’s semi-final opponent and the then Harimau Malaya started the home first leg strongly to take the lead through Safiq but costly defensive mistakes allowed Vo Huy Tuan and Nguyen Van Quyet to score and take a 2-1 lead back to Hanoi. The third is challenging. There were high expectations.

“We can not take Cambodia lightly as they have been preparing for a long time. This is the tournament where you want to play”, said Phil.

In preparing for the Suzuki Cup, Dooley formed a pool that was also composed of Amani Aguinaldo, Roland Muller, Patrick Deyto, Nicholas Michael O’Donnell, Luke Woodland, Dennis Villanueva, Kevin Ingreso, Martin Steuble, Manny Ott, Iain Ramsay, Paolo Bugas, Daniel Gadia, Junior Muñoz, Kenshiro Daniels, OJ Porteria, Simon Greatwich, Dom Del Rosario, Mark Hartmann, Shirmar Felongco and Jeffrey Christiaens.

His reasons: The lack of a “real” home ground advantage, and the unavailability of three stars – goalkeeper Neil Etheridge, defender Daisuke Sato and striker Javier Patino – who were not released by their clubs for the tournament.

Malaysia finished second in the group behind Thailand, who also defeated Wan Jamak Hassan’s men 1-0 in the final of the inaugural edition.

The Philippines will also be hosting Indonesia and defending champion Thailand in Group A of this year’s AFF championship.

Sundramoorthy laughed off suggestions that he will do a “Park the Bus” strategy, a football term used when a team opts to play defense the whole game.

“The boys are really focused and it’s a big competition with a lot of tension, but anything is possible so let’s see what happens tomorrow [Saturday]”.

The 54-year-old coach claimed Singapore were “playing games” to confuse their rivals.