Thomas Dooley uses high tech to take Azkals further The German-American mentor has been a breath of fresh air ever since he took over. With his easygoing charm, unassailable Football credentials as a player, and organized approach, he has won plenty of fans. Not bad for a coach who has yet to celebrate his first goal with the team. One Football pundit, FTW host Nate Dy-Liacco, even refers to Dooley as “the Pope Francis of Filipino Football.” But when the subject turns to the scientific tool he relies on for his work, Dooley gets especially animated. Since Dooley took over, the team has used a Football game info service to gain as much info on every performance. The service was founded by an American Soccer coach in 2001. The process is simple. Footage of the matches are sent to an analyst/ encoder who watches the game and encodes a plethora of different data about the match and the players into a report. Dooley says there are over 3,000 events in every Football match and much of that are recorded in the reports. The data is also entered into the company's database. From there coaches, players, and even broadcasters, can log in to tap into the vast swathes of encoded knowledge. According to Dooley, the info can be revelatory. For example, after the friendly against Malaysia, the stats showed that left back Jeff Christiaens was making positional errors and giveaways early on. Malaysia hit the woodwork three times in the first half, with many of the attacks coming from Christiaens' flank. Dooley showed him the info and they discussed the mistakes and how they could be rectified. The Fil-Belgian took copious notes and studied them earnestly, says Dooley. Against Azerbaijan, Christiaens was a lock-down fortress on his side. Stephan Schrock's data also showed something surprising; in spite of his preference for playing in one part of the field, the numbers in the Azerbaijan game revealed he took most of his touches from a very different area. The game analysis showed that midfielder Martin Steuble was the most efficient of the Azkals, giving the ball away the least among all the outfield Azkals. “You can't hide anymore” says Dooley of the new info, which shows in unsparing detail what the player does on the pitch. Several national teams, including the United States and Canada are clients of their system. Some clubs in Major League Soccer (the North American top tier), including the L.A. Galaxy and D.C. United have worked with the service company as well. A bunch of top-tier Mexican sides are also taking advantage of the company's resources. Dooley hopes that teams in the UFL can start using the service as well. He says it can also be an aid in improving the quality of officiating. Of course this isn't the only new idea that Dooley has brought to the Azkals. Dan Palami says that he was amazed at the number of classroom sessions the team had in their recent tour. The manager says that there were as many sessions in hotel conference rooms as there were on the training pitch. Dooley also gave out plenty of handouts for the players to study. Supposedly there were no such meetings under the previous regime. But the introduction of scientific game analysis is a huge one. Football is always evolving, and perhaps it is already becoming a geeky number-crunching chess game of percentages. But if that is so, the Azkals certainly won't be left behind. https://ph.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/t...-uses-high-tech-azkals-further-060628242.html First time I heard of this service. Very scientific and methodical. Every team should be using it as an objective way of receiving feedback on each individual player on the team and correcting any mistakes. I think it would also be a great way of scouting an opposing team, probing for mistakes and tendencies on individual players on the other team and creating a game plan structured to take advantage of another team's system and weaknesses. It reminds me of North American sports like baseball, basketball, football(NFL) and hockey where there are statistics for every single individual category and where they create systems for analyzing and comparing teams based on those statistics. Americans have this tendency to create statistics for every single category in a game and has been criticized by Europeans for it, but it seems to be an effective tool for dissecting your own team as well as the opposing team even for the game of soccer, where the free flowing and non stop nature of the game doesn't lend itself to easy statistical analysis.
The Asian Cup draw was held today: The tournament will kick off on January 9, with the final to be played at Stadium Australia on January 31. Group A: Australia, Korea Republic, Oman, Kuwait Group B: Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, China PR, DPR Korea Group C: IR Iran, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain Group D: Japan, Jordan, Iraq, AFC Challenge Cup 2014 winners www.afcasiancup.com/match-schedule/en/ Hopefully the Philippines can make the final spot.
In addition to the scheduled International “A” Friendly Matches against Nepal on 11 April 2014 in Doha, Qatar and Al Ahli Sports Club on 14 April 2014 also in Doha, Qatar, the Philippine Football Federation has announced a return International “A” Friendly Match against Malaysia which will be held on 27 April 2014 at the Cebu City Sports Complex, Cebu City. PFF is now submitting requisite documents to AFC and FIFA for official sanction of the return match. Because this games will be held on non FIFA match dates, they will be relying mostly on UFL players.
It's too bad Stefanowski is no longer the coach of Nepal. Philippines vs. Nepal would have been first time I could recall where two national teams coached by Americans faced off against each other (including the USMNT)
Here is Thomas along with some Azkal team members on the left, doing some charity work for the typhoon victims: The way he is going, he is CEMENTING his place on the Philippine national team for the foreseeable future.
Haha! Just saying the folks back home are loving Tom. The guy has got some heart. For his next act, he is going to start walking on water. Besides he really is proving to be a good coach with excellent motivational skills, very media friendly(great for marketing the game of soccer to a basketball loving public), and is proving to be an accomplished teacher of the game. If the Philippines does well in the Challenge Cup, my guess is they are going to offer him a multi-year contract to stay on as coach.
Listed roster for Nepal and Qatar club game in April, is almost entirely UFL based(as both games are not on FIFA match dates) except for Robert Gier and Martin Steuble. Veteran Sacapano and youngster O'Donnell are the goaltenders as Patrick Deyto who impressed in the last 2 March friendlies is not available bec. of a family wedding. Fil Am Charles Pettys and and Curt Dizon have been invited for their first callup in the absence of Porteria and Bahadoran who are both recovering from injuries. Otherwise lineup is similar to Malaysian game in March. http://azkalsfootballteam.com/news.php?id=474
Hopefully they can beat those opponents handily. Will be interesting to see how much progression with Dooleys tactics they've made since last match.
I forgot to add veteran Juan Guirado(Tercera Division, Spain) to the list of non UFL players called up along with Gier and Steuble. Juan and Rob Gier basically have full time jobs outside football and only play for their hometown teams in their respective leagues as part time players which allow them the opportunity to play for the national team more frequently. Gier used to play for Wimbledon FC(at a level just below top tier) when he was still at his peak. Juan and Rob are the anchors of the defence(both centerbacks) and with their experience are vital to organizing the defence. Last time they played Nepal in 2011, they won 4-0 at home. Expect the rookies and younger players to be tried in the game against Nepal. The Qatar club should offer them more of a challenge, as they will have bigger and more experienced and physical players. Initially the Qatar national team was listed as the opponent, but because most of the European based players will not be available, they decided to use a local club instead.
It is kind of interesting that Azerbaijani coach Berti Vogts who was impressed with the Philippine's play against them, is now a special advisor to Klinsmann on the US national team. I thought Dooley did well against Vogts in that game, especially in the 2nd half, when they carried most of the play.
Photo: Azkal Coach Thomas Dooley with assistant coaches Bruno Baltazar and Jorge Kuriyama(goalkeeping) in Qatar. Bruno Baltazar from Portugal is new assistant coach for Philippines national team (Azkals) He has previously been head coach for Portuguese second and third division club. Kuriyama played 10 years in Liga MX, the Mexican professional league, most notably a four-year stint with Mexico Cruz Azul. He has coached in Japan for six years. Last year, he assisted with the development of players of the under 23-year old national team of the Republic of the Philippines.
From what I could gather on Wikipedia and transfermarkt, Bruno Baltazar was at least an assistant manager at SU Sintrense, a lower division club in Portugal, and very briefly the manager of Atletico CP in the Segunda Liga (that's where Caleb Patterson-Sewell played for a season).
It was Dooley who recommended Baltazar as assistant coach. http://www.philstar.com/sports/2014/04/09/1310510/dooley-taps-portuguese-deputy-coach-azkals Azkals coach Thomas Dooley has brought in a new deputy in Portuguese Bruno Baltazar as he tries to whip the Pinoy booters into top form for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup. Baltazar, who played central defender during his playing career, served as head coach of Atlético Clube de Portugal II Liga and Sport União Sintrense III Div prior to coming over to Phl. The 36-year-old from Lisbon joined Dooley and the rest of the team in the Azkals’ weeklong training camp in Doha, Qatar, where they are set for international friendlies against Nepal and Al Ahly on Friday and Monday, respectively. This trip will serve as the next phase of the Azkals’ build-up for the May 19-30 Challenge Cup in Maldives, where a coveted berth to the 2015 Asian Cup is at stake. “It would be a dream win the (Challenge) cup and play the Asia Cup. I’m excited, “ Baltazar said recently in a report on Portuguese site A Bola.
BTW, Because of injuries Dooley added another teenager to the roster for Qatar, 19 y/o Fil Japanese Daisuke Sato who came from the youth system of the J league Urawa Red Diamonds. That means they will have 3 rookies on the roster, including Fil Am Charles Pettys and Fil Brit Curt Dizon all of them under 21. The lineup is very experimental and will pay dividends not necessarily near term for the Challenge Cup but for future tournaments like the SEA and Asian games(both under 23) as well as for the Suzuki Cup(regional ASEAN champhionship which includes Australia).
Dooley is fielding a young and experimental lineup fielding mostly rookies and young players except in central defence: Starting line-up v Nepal GK: Nicholas O'Donnell DF: Simone Rota, Rob Gier, Juan Guirado, Daisuke Sato MF: James Younghusband, Christopher Greatwich, Martin Steuble, Curt Dizon FW: Jason De Jong, Patrick Reichelt link for the game right now: http://tv.goalnepal.com/
One of the rookies(Dizon) just scored. 1-0 Philippines. The Philippines has most of the play and possession so far. Steuble scored his first goal. 2-0 Philippines. HT 2-0.
Watched after younghusband subbed out. Now it's 3-0 Azkals get a good result. Exactly the kind of rout they should have when playing these types of teams. Even if it is a B team. Should beat Al Ahly handily too.
ya should have worded it better. Its a good result cuz its a team they're supposed to beat by a big margin. if they had all there starters should have won by even a wider score line
It was expected. What was surprising was they dominated with rookies and younger players. Four players(Dizon, O'donnell, Sato, and Pettys had their first cap and did well. As usual, they played that attractive passing game we have come to expect under Dooley. Many of the veterans were not available or were being rested.
Although Nepal is ranked much lower, they played surprisingly well. Their organization throughout the field, both back and front, was clear. The Philippines have played poorly against worst teams, which is what makes me excited about this Dooley team. A far cry from just a few months ago, the team I saw is the one I've always thought they could be.
starting lineup Goalkeeper: Eduard Sacapano Defenders: Anton Del Rosario, Amani Aguinaldo, Rob Gier, Andrew Liauw Midfielders: James Younghusband, Jason De Jong, Simon Greatwich, Patrick Reichelt Forwards: Ruben Doctora Jr., Nate Burkey I believe both Aguinaldo(18) and Liauw are still teenagers. Bold move by Dooley to start both young players on defence and still have a satisfactory result. FT: Philippines 1-1 Al Ahli Philippine goal scored by Guirado who came on in the second half. The Philippines used all the players that did not play in Nepal(compare to lineup for Nepal I listed above), all of them based in the UFL. Their main scorer Phil Younghusband is nursing an injury and was used sparingly as a sub in the last few minutes in the Nepal game. 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.