Azkals looking for first win against Indonesia

The Philippines go into their June 5 match against Indonesia as favorites, despite never beating their South East Asian rivals. With the Philippines (148) ranked above Indonesia (151) in the FIFA rankings for the first time in history, Indonesia finds itself in the unfamiliar role of underdogs. The history Over the years, Indonesia has dominated clashes between the two countries. The two have played each other nineteen times with Indonesia having come away winners in eighteen. The sole outlier was a draw, all the way back in 1977. Before the Philippines’ semifinal appearance in the Suzuki Cup, the last time Indonesia and the Philippines faced off was back in the 2002 Tiger Cup (same tournament, different sponsor). That game ended with Indonesia beating the Philippines 13-1, which is still the all-time biggest win in the competition, qualifiers included. Indonesia in freefall In more recent years the Philippines has continued to rise from their Suzuki Cup semifinal, while Indonesia has gradually fallen from their ranking of 125 in January 2011. Recently, there have been many problems in Indonesian football as government interference has resulted in threatened sanctions from FIFA, with actual punishments possibly on the way, with the FIFA Emergency Committee meeting on June 15 to discuss the country's fate. Leadership tussles and allegations of corruption have left Indonesia’s Football Association (PSSI) strained. In 2008 the Super Liga was set up and for a time replaced the Indonesian Premier League as the top division of Indonesian football.   Three years later, the PSSI re-established the Indonesian Premier League as the top division, with the Super Liga declared as an unofficial league, unrecognized by the PSSI. That decison, along with political issues, divided the Indonesian clubs, with some teams sticking it out with the Super Liga and others jumping back to the IFL. And with teams split, so too are the country's best players. FIFA has since said that any team playing in the Super Liga is ineligible to represent Indonesia due to the unofficial status of the league. This has meant that a number of Indonesian stars have been left unable to play for the national side, including naturalized striker Cristian Gonzáles, who with eleven goals in nineteen games for Indonesia, would have been their greatest threat. The 35-year-old Uruguay-born forward scored both of Indonesia’s goals in their 2-0 aggregate win over the Philippines in the Suzuki Cup semis back in 2010. Now he's just not an option. Among their squad, Indonesia has four players who would be make their debuts if they featured in the game, while nine players have just one cap. Only three players in their squad have more than ten caps while their captain, Samsul Arif, has just two caps to his name. The Indonesia squad has a total number of 84 caps, but goalkeeper Markus Haris Maulana has 37 of those, meaning the rest of the squad is very inexperienced on the international stage. As a way of comparison, returning trio Neil Etheridge and the Younghusband brothers have 111 caps between them, more than the entire Indonesian squad. This inexperience was clearly exploited by Bahrain, which destroyed the Indonesians 10-0 earlier this year. Indonesia were therefore left with the worst goal difference of any team in the third round of World Cup Qualification. Previously the team looked strong as they beat Turkmenistan 4-3 and qualified 5-4 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw in the first leg. Turkmenistan was the side which beat the Azkals in the Challenge Cup semifinal. However their internal problems have crippled their team since. Unable to field many of their most talented players, their 10-0 mauling was followed by a timid 2-0 victory over Mauritiana, who are ranked 50 places below, and one of the goals was an own goal. Should the country fail to sort out it’s crisis, the Philippines may well also be the last opponent Indonesia faces for quite some time, with FIFA are threatening to suspend Indonesia if they cannot resolve these issues. The strongest ever Azkals side? Stephan Schröck’s immediate flight back to Germany has left a hole in the midfield but with several players rejoining the squad, coach Michael Weiss will still have a selection problem, trying to choose between Manny Ott, Jerry Lucena, Paul Mulders, Lexton Moy and Jason De Jong for the most hotly contested positions in the center of midfield. It is likely that the coach will play a more attacking 4-4-2 formation, compared to the defensive 4-4-1-1 he started with in Malaysia, especially given the home advantage. This means the return of Challenge Cup golden boot winner Phil Younghusband, while Denis Wolf and Angel Guirado compete to fill the other forward slot with Chieffy Caligdong and James Younghusband as the first choice wingers on the team With Neil Etheridge back between the sticks, most of the defense which faced Malaysia will be lining up, but there remains an injury concern over Juan Luis Guirado who fell awkwardly during the game against Malaysia. According to Manager Dan Palami an initial MRI scan showed no tear in the ACL or MCL but the striker remained “highly doubtful” for the game. With the older Guirado brother being played out of position at left back, the return of Dennis Cagara will be a welcome boost as he is the only natural left back in the squad. With so many quality players the management may be facing the hardest choice for a starting eleven yet. Here’s a possible selection ahead of the June 5 friendly: