Football: Azkals vs Tigers friendly a key tune-up for both sides' future matches

The men’s national football team of the Philippines—just back from their defense-oriented training in the United Arab Emirates—will test their preparedness for their upcoming matches in Nepal against a revamped contingent from Malaysia Wednesday evening, the coaches of both sides revealed.   In the pre-match news conference Tuesday near noontime, Coach K. Rajagopal disclosed that his team’s key player Safee Sali will suit up for the friendly match tomorrow evening despite having “a minor injury” which the Malaysian team’s mentor did not give specifics on. Safee, at 27, is the oldest player of the Tigers.   “I’ve made a lot of changes. I’ve brought a lot of new faces here. Missing from the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup is about 12 players, but that’s not going to be an excuse…I want them to play a good match,” he said.  

The last Suzuki Cup was in December 2010, but Malaysia was the football champion in the South East Asian Games in November last year. Coach K. Rajagopal added that the match Wednesday is the start of their preparations for the next Suzuki Cup, which Malaysia will be one of the hosts of late this year.   Against the Philippine contingent—popularly known as the Azkals—Rajagopal said his team will rely on their “short passing game”, which he affirmed is their “main strength” and “identity” developed through the years.   He also said their side has respect for the Philippine team, whose performance “surprised” them in the last Suzuki round.   Rajagopal explained that it took years and good grassroots development for his team to get to become Southeast Asia’s champions.   He recalled that when he began the work in 2003, he had young under-19 players most of whom he “managed to keep together” since then. “With the young squad, we became the Suzuki Cup champion,” he said.   Before coming to Manila, coach Rajagopal said they had just one tune up match to prepare for the “physically-strong” Azkals.   Azkals excited   The Azkals hope to run their newly-honed skills and strategies by the Malaysian Tigers.   “We face a very strong opponent,” Azkals coach Michael Weiss acknowledged.   With the Azkals taking advantage of the confidence boost from playing on home turf, coach Weiss vowed to “give Malaysia a good fight.”   Part of the objective he said is “to see our development of the past 14, 15, 16 months and to see where we stand against the reigning champion of the Suzuki Cup and the Under-23 SEAGames winners…”   For his part, Jason Sabio said, “Hopefully, we’ve made great strides…Whenever you play a quality team, it’s a good test…and an opportunity to see where you are.”   Phil Younghusband seconded his coach’s remarks on the stock-taking character of the friendly.   “It’s been a roller coaster ride. We’ve been up and down. We’ve had players in, we’ve had players out. It would be a good chance to see the level where we are at the moment,” Younghusband also said.   “Apart from the excitement, it (the friendly with Malaysia) will also give us a clear view of our defense shape. We were working on that pretty much in Dubai and I also expect the team to be more, very defensively organized to hopefully not allow a goal with a strong man (Etheridge)...who will do everything to prevent the other team from (scoring),” Weiss elaborated.   “We have a decent group even without (most) of the players based abroad,” the German coach also said.   United Kingdom-based Neil Etheridge is back in town and will man the goal Wednesday night.   Etheridge said the Azkals have “got a lot of respect for the Malaysian team…We go into every game wholeheartedly. This would be good preparation for the Challenge Cup next month.” — GMA News