Philippines[R]

FT: Philippines 1-1 Al Ahli

Philippine goal scored by Guirado who came on only in the second half. The Philippines used all the players that did not play in Nepal including teenagers Aguinaldo(18) and Liauw who both started in defence, all of them based in the UFL.

I read that the Philippines dominated the play, but were unable to finish most of their chances. Al Ahli scored off of a counterattack. The game was not televised.

 

Correction: Only Aguinaldo at 18 is still a teenager. Pretty young to be starting on the national team already on defence. All 23 players in the roster(19 from the UFL and 3 or 4 of whom are teenagers), were given a chance to play in this training camp and be properly evaluated by the coaching staff without any loss of standard in play.

 

It looks like promising young teenager 18 y/o Mike Ott who has been sought after by different Bundesliga clubs, has transferred to Bundesliga club FC Nurnberg from 1860 Munich for next season. Hopefully as his star has risen, that he will still consider joining his brother on the Philippine national team, despite the fact that he is starting to attract interest in Germany nationally despite his young age.

 

Here is what the Nurnberg has to say about him:

"Bundesliga club 1.FC Nürnberg has secured the services of midfielder talent Mike Ott. The 19-year-old comes in the summer from the second division 1860 Munich free transfer to Franconia and gets the club a three-year contract until 30 June 2017. "Mike is one of the most talented players in Germany and has shown in his first senior year of outstanding performance" said sporting director Martin Bader FCN."

http://www.zeit.de/news/2014-04/15/fussball-nuernberg-verpflichtet-loewen-talent-mike-ott-15122004

 

Hi, long time lurker, rare poster, formerly against Filipino football but now have made a complete 180 to support it.

Just a question which I am sure has been asked before... When will the UFL change its rules to match the AFC? Like 3+1 foreigner rule and all that. I saw a lot about Filipino football from Futball Mundial and I saw some UFL games and I am really impressed but I am disheartened that the league has no rep in the AFC Cup. Really it should.

 

The UFL participated for the first time in AFC club competitions a couple of years ago and they had to start at the lowest tier which is the President's Cup. The. AFC Cup is the next level up. As they improve their organization, standard of play and infrastructure, they will then be eligible for the next level, the AFC Cup and eventually the Champions Cup. That is their long term goal. Because of the demands of AFC club competition, they have had to institute rules to reduce the number of foreigners per team at least in the 1st division on a gradual basis. The current rep this year Ceres FC which won the national competition was from the 2nd division and oddly enough was not subject to the same rules. However they have been recruiting a lot of foreign born players who have Philippine citizenship, to help their team become more competitive for the President's Cup as well as for the first division of the UFL next year, as they are candidates for promotion next season. It is a gradual process as they try to maintain a certain level of play while slowly increasing the pool of qualified local born players they are developing from the youth ranks and universities.

 

The roster for the next friendly on
April 27th against Malaysia is out and is again almost entirely UFL based with only Lucena and Steuble based abroad. I guess we won't see the full team until a few days before the Challenge Cup.

 

Change in UFL schedule for May:

http://ufl.ph/ufl-resumes-after-holy-week-break-with-change-in-schedule/

 

Hm, that makes sense. So what are the current rules and how are they gradually changing? I know this seems like a lot of questions so sorry if this is a strain for you. If there is any website I could look at to follow Filipino football more closely that would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

 

This article last year explains the decision made by the UFL to limit foreign players to 5 on the playing field at one time. From what I understand they plan to limit that further gradually in the future to align themselves with AFC rules.

http://www.interaksyon.com/interaktv/special-report-is-the-ufl-ready-to-put-cap-on-foreign-players

BTW, there are many sites to read about Filipino football like the one above and practically all the publications are in English. The UFL website is at http://ufl.ph/

Also 2014 is the last edition of the President's Cup, as mandated by the AFC. Starting in 2015, there will be an expanded AFC Cup, with qualifiers.

 

That is good at least. The closer to AFC rules the better. Thanks!

 

The US and Canada have the same problem with MLS. I believe each team has 8 available international slots per team. To help local players, Canadian MLS teams are mandated by their federation to have at least 3 domestic players on their roster. Considering they have only 3 teams in the MLS, this sort of limits the ability of Canadian teams to develop their players at this level.

This current 2014 season was the first time they have instituted the 5 foreign player limit in the UFL 1st division, so long time expatriate mostly teams like Nomads FC which has been around since 1914, have had to move to the 2nd division to comply with the rules.

 

Good step to the future, Intime, Filo clubs should be playing in AFC Cup at minimum.

 

Thanks edrees although with the President's Cup being discontinued, all the clubs in the lower tier countries, are now going to be participating in an expanded AFC Cup starting in 2015.

 

which is great, because it will allow filo clubs to play against better clubs.
I am a strong believer that the gap between Middle tier nations and lower tier nations has minimized (excl Cambodia, Bhutan - no offence) but the rest can take them for a run..

this is great for Philippines, coming from the lower tier, to outplay middle tier clubs.

 

Well I am just glad they have a good league to develop players. Already many local born Filipinos are getting a chance to play creditably in national team B, so the UFL is already doing its job of producing national team caliber players.

 

FT 0-0 Philippines Malaysia

4th straight draw between the 2 national sides. This time the Philippines dominated most of the possession and chances especially in the first half, hitting the cross bar a few times, or going just wide. They really miss the finishing of Phil Younghusband who is still recovering from his injury.

The Malaysians nearly turned it around in the 90th minute, when they were awarded a penalty kick after a Philippine player was deemed guilty of a controversial handball. The Philippine goalkeeper Deyto however made the save keeping the score nil nil.

 

Post match comments by Dooley courtesy of Azkals (Philippine National Football Team) Facebook:

This was a better game than the one in Malaysia. This time I think that we deserved to win. Malaysia were more dangerous in the second half. It's important for us to play here in Cebu. It gives us confidence heading to the Challenge Cup. I'm very happy how the players played tonight. This squad won't be the same squad in the Maldives. We will decide at the last minute who will come in. Football always turns around.

Malaysia's coach Ong Kim Swee:

This is a different game than we played in Kuala Lumpur. They (the Philippines) played better than in Kuala Lumpur especially with their home support. We almost won the game with the penalty kick, but it didn't happen. The Philippine goalkeeper (@pdeyto) played well tonight.
The Philippines improved very well. Steuble and De Jong were impressive.

____

Apparently the Azkal's inability to score may have had something to do with the Malaysian game plan as acc. to media reports, he told the Malaysian media beforehand that he would not employ an all-out attack like he did in the March 1 friendly. He wasn't kidding. His defense and midfield was densely packed for much of the game. After the match he told the reporter it was a good result considering how many chances the Azkals squandered. I guess the away team coach is always happy with a draw in a hostile venue.

My Man of the Match is local born Filipino goalkeeper Patrick Deyto for saving that penalty kick and for being so calm and composed throughout the match diffusing the few chances that Malaysia had with confidence and aplomb, including that toe kick, that saved a goal from an errant Azkal backpass.

 

Special mention to the UFL's contribution to the national team in this article:

"The UFL can take a lot of credit for this performance. All but two of the starters for the national team came from the UFL, and this is reflective of how the standard in that league has grown leaps and bounds. We drew against one of ASEAN's top sides despite not having our best striker available and with our two best centerbacks unable to make the trip. That says a lot about the depth of this team.

The intensity of the play in the UFL has raised the fitness and technical standard of our players, and no, it's not all due to the influx of foreign-based Filipinos and foreign players. Green Archers United Globe and Pachanga PLDT Home Fibr rely heavily on homegrown players and they are doing just fine in the middle of the table. That can only mean that all players, including the ones born and bred here, are having their games raised in the heat of UFL battle."

https://ph.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/t...oughts-good-kind-goalless-draw-152029532.html

The performance against Malaysia bodes well for the Suzuki Cup later this year, as they will be unable to call up many of the European based players, as they showed that they can dominate ASEAN opposition based on a roster consisting primarily of players from the UFL. For the Challenge Cup however, as Dooley hinted, they will have a totally different squad as many of the European based players will be called up.

 

The AFC has taken notice of local born goaltender Patrick Deyto:

www.the-afc.com/en/afc-challenge-2014-cup-all-news/28304-deyto-adds-to-dooley%E2%80%99s-goalkeeping-options.html

He has only played a few games for the Azkals, all of them under Dooley, but he has impressed enough to win Man of the Match honors for many of them. He would make a solid #3 goalie behind Muller and Etheridge.

 

Philippine National Team Azkals Head Coach Dooley, Assistant Coach Baltazar and German Grassroots Development Expert Thomas Roy(who was sent by the DFB), the men involved in guiding Philippine football to a better future.


The 45-year-old Roy will provide his services for an initial period of two years in the “Youth Football Technical Development Assistance Program” under the Memorandum of Agreement between the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine government, through the Philippine Sports Commission, the DOSB and the PFF.

"Coach Roy will be assisting us in developing our youth system and enhancing our grassroots which is a very important component of football development in the country,” PFF president Nonong Araneta said during yesterday’s launch.

Munich-born Roy served as selection team coach for the Bavarian Football Association and for Germany’s U21 and U13 boys team and U18 and U15 girls teams. Prior to his stint in the Phl, Roy got involved in short-term development projects in Belgium, Switzerland, Honduras, Uruguay, Mozambique, Iraq and Uganda in cooperation with FIFA, UEFA, AFC and DFB.

http://www.philstar.com/sports/2013/11/09/1254647/football-expert-here-help-pff

 

Coach Thomas Roy was actually performing the same function for the DFB, selecting and developing many of the national youth teams for Germany. The fact that they are sending their point man to the Philippines in a long term project(initially 2 years), speaks highly of the importance and potential that FIFA and the DFB sees in Philippine football, a pilot grassroots development project which they basically have to start from scratch.

In another interview, Roy spoke of the German experience, having to build a new program in 2001 after reaching a nadir, headed by Berti Vogts (the new USSF consultant and Azerbaijian coach), which has now achieved 365 training centers(with 3 UEFA B licensed coaches per center) all over the country, with 8 million registered players.

In the Philippines they are going to start initially with 6 training centers and build from there. They decided to do this after a FIFA performance review of the PFF 2 years ago, which Thomas Roy was a part of, that concluded that it was worth it to start this program in the country, after seeing the growth in interest of football in the Philippines and the commitment of the PFF to improve its program. Roy said that before this, he would only go abroad in short trips to various countries so this is the first time he would be involved in such a long term project outside Germany.

It also helps that the DFB has an excellent working relationship with the PFF, dating back to the late 1970's, when they first sent Coach Zgoll. Unfortunately, football was not very popular back then. Now considered the fastest growing sport in the country, they now have a better chance of really improving the sport in the Philippines and the success of the national team under Thomas Dooley, is just as important in helping ensure its popularity and subsequent growth.

 

Apparently Philippine club Ceres FC managed a 2-2 draw in its first game against N Korean club Rimyongsu in the AFC President's Cup.

Acc. to one of the reporters, Rimyongsu had 5 players who had experience in the Under17, Under20 World Cups as well as the World Cup in 2010, so this draw is a good result for Ceres FC.

 

The Asian Cup website features the Philippine national team:

http://www.afcasiancup.com/news/en/azkals-on-the-rise/t9cbulzx59g61t5tckb78npfp

 

AFC President's Cup: FullTime: Ceres-Negros F.C. 2-0 Tatung Company.

Goalscorers for Ceres:
Patrick Reichelt 16"
Juan Luis Guirado Aldeguer 87"