Philippines[R]

Here is an article illustrating the difficulty in recalling players from their European clubs:

http://sports.inquirer.net/37485/full-strength-azkals-still-a-dream

The Philippines still longs for the day when it will have all the best available talent in the team for a major tournament.

It didn’t happen here at the AFC Challenge Cup in this laidback city in the Himalayas. And team manager Dan Palami fears it may not happen soon.

“Up to now, that has always been the biggest challenge,” said Palami of getting the likes of standouts Stephan Schrock, Jerry Lucena and Dennis Cagara released from their respective foreign clubs to don the country’s colors.

“The players are actually willing to play, but the clubs will not let them,” said Palami, who remains hopeful that the Europe-based standouts will suit up for the next major tournament, the Suzuki Cup, late this year."

Clubs are only inclined to release players for Fifa international dates, and the Challenge Cup does not fall in the calendar.

Neil Etheridge of Fulham and Paul Mulders of ADO Den Haag in the Dutch first division were released for the tournament, boosting the Azkals’ artillery.

“The significance (of our tournaments) is sometimes lost in the clubs,” said Palami. “But we are taking steps so that they will be able to join tournaments that are actually in the Fifa calendar.
“We just have to resort to getting on the good side of the clubs to release players.”

 

Pelefan: To add to that, Ayr United was promoted to the SFL First Division after it ranked second at the Second Division in the 2010/11 season, and won the promotion play-offs versus the First Division 9th placer Cowdenbeath. Ayr have enjoyed success in the current season of the Scottish League Cup, beating SPL sides Inverness, Hearts and St. Mirren on their way to the semi-finals. Ayr United played against rivals Kilmarnock in the semi-finals for the first time ever, only losing to Kilmarnock in extra time. They also lost in the Scottish Cup against SPL side Hibernian in the quarter-finals. Scottish football is considered physical, but internally uncompetitive compared to neighbouring England, with the clear dominance of Rangers and Celtic in the SPL with a very large differential in strength between the 2nd and 3rd place clubs.

 

stellarboy,

thanks for the comprehensive update. You should include that on the other board.

 

Tajikistan 1-2 Philippines
Tuesday, 13 March 2012 15:38

The Philippines fairy tale run in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup continued on Tuesday when they defeated a former champion for the second time, with their 2-1 victory over Tajikistan sending the Azkals through to the semi-finals. The two sides last met back in May, 2008 in the qualifying tournament for the second edition of the AFC Challenge Cup and, with home advantage, the Philippines held the eventual finalists to a goalless draw.

But on the neutral venue of Kathmandu's Halchowk Stadium with a place in the semi-finals of the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup at stake it was the South East Asians on top with a thoroughly deserved victory.

Defender Alexey Negmatov gave the Tajiks the lead in stoppage-time of a first-half dominated by the Philippines, who levelled the contest nine minutes after the interval when Phil Younghusband scored his third of the tournament.

And with ten minutes left to play Angel Guirado, who set up Younghusband's equaliser, scored the goal the made Challenge Cup history for the Philippines.

Three minutes after Tajikistan kicked-off the Philippines crafted the first chance of the match when Ray Jonsson whipped a cross in from the left that narrowly missed the head of Phil Younghusband, who scored both goals in the Philippines' 2-0 win over 2008 champions India, before being safely gathered by Tajik keeper Alisher Tuychiev.

Three minutes later it was the Tajiks turn to threaten with Dzhakongir Dzhalilov racing onto a long ball over the top of the Philippines defence only for keeper Neil Etherdidge to sprint sharply out of his area to clear the danger.

In the tenth minute it was Tuychiev's turn to keep the scoreline blank after the Istikol keeper stood strong to block a power angled drive from Phil Younghusband after being set up by a well-placed pass from his older brother James.

Tajikistan defender Sohib Savankulov misjudged a speculative long ball towards the Tajik goal giving Phil Younghusband another opportunity but the ball didn't run kindly for the former Chelsea reserve and the 32nd minute chance went begging.

The Philippines had the upper-hand and just as it was looking like the sides would go into the break level Fatkhulo Fatkhuloev's stoppage-time corner was headed goalward by Negmatov and while the Azkals claimed skipper Emelio Caligdong had cleared the danger the assistant referee consulted match official Ryuji Sato to say the ball had crossed the line and the Tajiks went 1-0 up against the run of play.

The goal seemed to deflate the Philippines are started the second-half without the vigour of the opening period but things changed in the 54th minute when Angel Guirado robbed Davronjon Ergashev on the left channel, charged to the byline and fired the ball past Tuychiev and across the face of goal where Phil Younghusband was on hand to fire the ball into the empty net for his third of the tournament.

The equaliser lifted the Philippines but it was the Tajiks that next came close to scoring only for Dzhalilov to screw his close-range shot wide when well positioned to at least test Etheridge on the hour mark.

Seven minutes later the Philippines came agonizingly close to taking the lead when Phil Younghusband's shot beat Tuychiev but not the inside of his right-hand post.

With ten minutes left to play the Philippines got the goal their pressure deserved with Guirado bravely heading home from close range, with the burly midfielder getting the better of Tuychiev and covering defender to send the Azkals through to a final four meeting with Turkmenistan.

http://www.the-afc.com/en/tournaments/men-a-youth/afc-challenge-cup/38322-tajikistan-v-philippines

 

To illustrate how the above match went, here are some interesting stats. The Philippines had 14 shots on goal to Tajikistan's 7 and Tajikistan's keeper had to make 11 saves to only 2 for Neil Etheridge of the Philippines. This bodes well for the semis. However, the Philippines will not be able to field 2 key players due to yellow card accumulation for the match against Turkmenistan, man of the match awardee Angel Guirado and James Younghusband for that game, which will make things a lot more difficult for the Azkal side.

 

Well done Philippines! I'm so happy for you! I hope you win the tournament. I want to see the Philippines in the 2015 Asian Cup. You deserve going to Australia!

 

Thanks Kutsuit. Unfortunately we lost 2 of our best players to yellow card accumulation, Man of the Match Angel Guirado and James Younghusband, and I am not as positive as I was before of advancing any further without those two. We will see if the others can step it up.

Anywways, if we don't win the championship this time, the Philippines are already making plans of bidding to host both the qualifiers and the finals in the next edition of the Challenge Cup in 2013 and 2014 respectively and can hopefully win it then, since they will have another 2 years to gain experience and get better. If we do that, hopefully we will get a chance to play Kuwait in Australia in 2015.

Good luck to your team.

 

Thanks. We do need it!

It'll be so magical if the Philippines qualify to Australia, and go on to meet Kuwait in the 2015 Asian Cup.

Such a shame that the yellow cards were carried over to the semifinals. I still hope you win, even if it's going to be more difficult now.

And I really hope the Philippines host the next Challenge Cup, especially if they don't win the tournament this year.

Well done to the Philippines, in any case, for their gradual improvement in football.

 

Well the hope is that if the Filos do make it to 2015 Asian Cup, it will make the nation and the player pool around the world double. Many of the foreign Filo players will put their hand up to play in the Asian cup and all of a sudden you will have an even stronger team...

 

Thank you so much, Kutsuit. I appreciated your well-wishes and advice after our team's run with your team last year. It was well-said and I do think the team needs these kinds of people who'd appreciate teams like ours. You do think that the Philippine booters deserves to be in Australia in 2015, don't you?

edrees, if indeed our team wins the tournament and qualify for the Asian Cup 2015, who knows when the foreign-based players we scouted at our Philippine football boards come over and play for us and maybe form the strongest we could get for 2015 together with the future boys from our revived grassroots program? And maybe form the best team we can get for the next World Cup Qualifiers for 2018?

 

It is just unfortunate that AFC do not have much thought over the emerging nations and especially a 'big' enough cup like the Challenge Cup.
If a nation (from the lower tier) cannot get together there strongest side for any game, then what is the whole point? how can the team get ahead? and become better?

I have always said that AFC only look to further strengthen the Big 5 in order for the "AFC" representative at the world cup do well, other then that, they dont really care for emerging nations to become stronger.

this is shown in how much lower nations are counted out with the format of Asian Cup qualifiers, introduction of Challenge Cup, and the World Cup Qualifying format.

 

Are we sure we lose Guirado and Younghusband? I thought I saw a tweet that said that all yellow cards aren't carried over into the next round.

 

It is official Mike. It was listed by the AFC that 3 players(1 Palestine and 2 Philippines will be suspended for the semifinals). Those 2 players are a big loss to the Philippines.

 

Well I think James is more easily replaceable than Angel. With that said I agree, advancing just got tougher.

 

http://www.inquirer.net/?page-one=march-14-2012

Compliments !!!

 

Thanks napolisoccer. We are not done yet. Although we are not sure of winning the Challenge Cup this time around, I think in the years ahead you are going to see the Philippines move up the ladder of Asian football.

Not only were our best players missing because they were not released by their clubs abroad for this tournament, but there is actually a new generation of young Filipinos who play at a high level in top tier leagues abroad who have expressed a desire to play for the Philippines in the future.

Some of the best ones who are currently playing for the national youth teams of such countries as England, France, Sweden and Denmark have indicated that if they don't make the senior team of their respective countries, they would be open to playing for the Philippines instead.

Add that to the increasing standard being played in our local professional league as well as the improvements made in our grassroots program, and there is a lot to look forward to.

 

I do.

Honestly, I also think the Philippines should have gone past Kuwait in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. We really didn't deserve going to the group phase.

I think the Philippines has a good future in football. The initiative is there.

 

German video interview on one of our players. Anybody care for a translation?

http://www.wdr.de/mediathek/html/re...-duisburg-philippinisch-deutscher-torwart.xml

 

I am rooting for the Azkals to win the AFC Challenge cup!

 

Congrats guys!

@Pelefan, I only understand bits of the video. Better a German native speaker takes up the translation part. I did get from it, his mother is very proud of his son playing for the Azkals. The schedule was a bit touch combined with club, but that he has a lot of fun. His mother also helps with learning with singing (I presume the NT anthem?). He watches images and video's on the computer back and he is becoming increasingly part of the NT with fans linking him. His goal is to become first keeper at his club and that it is not realistic yet to expect the Azkals in a WC yet.

Well if he improves on club level than that is also good for Azkals.

All in all I got from it, he was very happy to be Azkal NT player and looking at the body language of his mother she is over the moon.

Cheers

 

I appreciate all the support guys.

Thanks DRB300. I wasn't sure you were still following the thread. Your message seems to have gotten most of the gist of the video, so it should be okay, I will post it in the other board. I will also try to see if Loddar is still around.

Hopefully Roland Mueller gets a chance to start with his team, He plays at a good level in the 2 Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and has proven in his previous games with the national team that he is just as good as our starting goalkeeper Neil Etheridge who is the alternate goalkeeper at Fulham FC in the English Premiership.

BTW, DRB300, our Indonesian member here, tatotop, asked me awhile ago if you can translate some Dutch videos on some Indonesian players in Holland also. I wasn't sure you were still around but now that you are here I decided to pass on the request. He is a cool guy and likes our team as well.

tatotop, Here is your chance.

Thanks again everyone and I do hope we can win the Challenge Cup, but we do have some significant suspensions in the next game and some tough matches ahead. We will see. It certainly will be a big upset if we do though being such a complete unknown in football.

 

Everything Dutch language related, pass it to me. Happy to do it for Indonesia as well. PM is the best way to make sure I see the request as I skim through the so many threads I am subscribed to, that I will probably miss some things here and there.

Frustrating about the suspensions.

 

Pelefan - congrats! Always an ASEAN fan (after Myanmar, of course).

 

Thanks Yoma Taung. This semifinal has an interesting subplot with 4 regions in Asia(East, West, Central and Southeast) facing each other. We members of ASEAN should stick together as the Philippines represents SEA against the other regions of the AFC.

More bad news for the Philippine side. One of our starting centerbacks, Jason Sabio, has been injured. This is not good as we are kind of thin at that position. Aside from being a reliable defender, he was also responsible for throwing in those heavy accurate missiles from the sideline that caused so much havoc in the opponent's defence.

 

Interesting article by Sport 360 given by our starting goalkeeper Neil Etheridge:

NEIL ETHERIDGE INTERVIEW: FULHAM'S FILIPINO NO.1 HAS NO REGRETS OVER ENGLAND SNUB
March 8, 2012

There were 96 million collective sighs of relief in the Philippines this week when Premier League club Fulham released their second-choice keeper Neil Etheridge to join the Filipino national team in Nepal for the upcoming AFC Challenge Cup.

Etheridge is part of a young Philippines squad trying to make history for their country after they qualified for the Challenge Cup for the first time – and the 22-year-old is one of the Azkals’ greatest assets.

Born in Greater London to an English father and a Filipino mother, Etheridge played for England Under-16s back in 2005, but he remained eligible to play for the Philippines and four years ago, he decided to pledge his international services to the Asian nation.

Etheridge told Sport360° about his decision to play for the Philippines rather than hold out for England. “It’s always difficult when you’re a dual nationality like myself, to play for England or to play for a team like the Philippines,” he said. “A majority of people would look at it and say obviously you want to play for England. And of course the chance for playing for England was there at the time, playing for the under-16s or 17s, but looking back on it, I would never regret my decision.

“To see the Philippines come forward in football is something I can tell my kids and tell my family. To be part of this transformation, from pretty much nothing to now, I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully we’ll make it and become a stronger force in football.”

On the rise

In a country where football has always taken a back seat to other sports like basketball and boxing, Etheridge explains how football is making a lot of progress. He paid tribute to Team Manager Dan Palami, who is considered the saviour of Filipino football. Etheridge says: “There’s been a lot of changes on and off the field since I first joined the national team. Players weren’t the same and a lot of players weren’t playing professionally.

“As the years went on more Filipino foreigners started to join the team. As players and the management we didn’t want it to be a full team of players that would fly in from abroad. Obviously, you can respect that as it’s a lot of money for the federation to give, to fly the players out and obviously it’s not going to be beneficial for the Philippines in the long run, the leagues and things that we’re looking at to improve.

"At the moment we have a good balance. Off the field, we’ve gone through many managers, we’re a team that was not recognised in the world. I’m not saying that we are now but we’re definitely putting a mark on the map for ourselves.

“This is a massive step forward. I remember years back when the organisation wasn’t the greatest, there was a lot of… I have to be careful what to say here. There were disagreements off the field should I say. But now, since Dan Palami took over, we got through to the semi-finals of the South-East Asian Cup, which for us was massive.”

The Azkals made it through both group stages with an admirable performance, only to come unstuck against Indonesia over two legs in the last four. Etheridge said: “Unfortunately, losing to Indonesia twice at their grounds (no ground was suitable in the Philippines) is a big memory that will stick with myself and the rest of the players that played in the competition because that was the start of the development of Filipino football.

“Dan put his hand in and it’s about what he has given the whole team. Bringing new coaches in, new players in. Four years ago, even two years ago I would never have thought I’d be on a trip to Dubai, or any of the places we’ve been. So it’s a massive credit to the staff and Dan Palami himself.

“I’m looking forward to the Filipino league, it’s now building up. Some of the players are starting to financially benefit from it which is a step in the right direction. There’s a long way to go but with the support from the government and the federation, I could see it as a league that could hopefully compete in South-East Asia.”

Loving life at the Cottage

Etheridge, who has made only one appearance for Fulham with the senior team last December in the Europa League, has signed on at Craven Cottage until the end of 2013 but the Fil-Brit is unsure on how many chances he’ll get to play with first-choice keeper Mark Schwarzer also extending his contract for the same period.

“I love the club. I’ve been there now for five or six years, since I was 15. I was with Chelsea for four, then moved to Fulham. I’ve loved every moment playing for that club. Obviously being close to where I’m based as well always helps,” said Etheridge. “There’ll be a time where, of course, I want to play football and I know Fulham want to support me in that, so whether it be I go alone next season, or stay at the club, it’s undecided but for me it’s just about playing football.

"I really want to play football to the highest level I can. The Premier League is the top league in the world so to be part of a club such as Fulham which is very well-respected is a great honour. And I just want to keep it that way for as long as possible.”

http://www.sport360.com/article/neil-eth....er-england-snub

I wonder sometimes if he would have been given better opportunities to develop and start in the English leagues, if he had kept the option of becoming a goalkeeper for England. He has been told apparently that he would have been considered a candidate for England, because of his good performances at such a young age(21-22) and that maybe he should have postponed his decision. Nevertheless I am very glad that he chose to play for the Philippines at a very young age (17-18) when he wasn't yet so in demand, as he has proven to be an outstanding goalkeeper for us, with 31 caps so far.