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By ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – The Philippine men’s football team Azkals will begin its quest in the 2016 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup as it takes on the Singapore Lions tonight at the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Game time is at 8 p.m. with the 124-ranked Azkals aiming to test the mettle of the 171-ranked Lions.
The Thomas Dooley-mentored Azkals was bracketed to Group A along with 2012 titlist Lions, defending champions Thailand and Indonesia, which is returning from International Football Federation (FIFA) suspension.
Curiously, these three squads were also the teams that ousted the Azkals in the semifinals round of the previous three editions of the biennial football tournament.
“We need to play our game. We need to have respect with opponent and we need to acknowledge what they did in the last couple of games and months,” said Dooley. “We talked about commitment for 90 minutes and everybody should give they have.”
Leading the way for the Azkals are Phil and James Younghusband, Stephan Schrock, Misagh Bahadoran, Iain Ramsay, Manuel Ott, Jeffrey Christiaens, Dennis Villanueva, Amani Aguinaldo, Junior Munoz, and Ronald Muller.
Also in the lineup are Ilonggo Shirmar Felongco, Mike Ott, Martin Steuble, Luke Woodland, Simon Greatwich, Mark Hartmann, Kevin Ingreso, Jose Porteria, Paolo Bugas, Kenshiro Daniels, Patrick Deyto, Dominic del Rosario, and Nick O’Donnell.
Bannering the Lions, on the other hand, are veterans Khairul Amri, Shahril Ishak and Baihakiki Khaizan. It will, however, miss the services of Fazrul Nawaz, who is recovering from a knee injury.
Only the top two teams from the Philippine group stage will move on to the semifinals against the top two teams from the Myanmar group stage, which is composed of Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia./PN
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