[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’ Azkals braces for Yemen in Bacolod ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=’18’ font_color=” color=”]
MANILA – The Philippine men’s football team was preparing for a tough challenge from Yemen in the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 Qualifiers tonight at the Panaad Park and Football Stadium in Bacolod City.
Azkals head coach Thomas Dooley was forced to inject new players in his 23-man roster following injuries on veterans Javier Patiño, Amani Aguinaldo and Kenshiro Daniels, and the suspension of Daisuke Sato.
“Our form is everything but perfect,” said Dooley, who recently enlisted Dylan De Bruycker, Harry Föll, Joshua Grommen, and Tyler Matas.
“I hope they are team players and [will] give everything they have,” he said. “Those are future players, and you never know how they do, so I hope we can find one or two more surprises.”
This will be Azkals’ third match in the World Cup qualifying event after scoring a 4-1 home victory against Nepal on March 28 and a 4-3 escape from Tajikistan on June 13.
Azkals and Yemen split their last two matches, with the former scoring 2-0 in June 2015 in Yemen and the latter exacting revenge five months later 1-0 in Manila.
“Yemen is much better than the last time, and it will take everything from us to beat the team,” said Dooley. “We need to finish our chances and be focused the whole match.”
Azkals was aiming to end up at least in the top two of its group to advance to the next round of the quadrennial international men’s football championship of Asia two years from now./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
