Confusion mounts over Azkals coaching position MANILA, Philippines - Will the real Azkals head coach please stand up? Confusion has surrounded the situation over who will fill the coaching void for the Philippine national football team, with conflicting tweets from the official Azkals Twitter account and team manager Dan Palami compounding the situation. http://www.rappler.com/sports/by-sport/football/49386-confusion-mounts-over-azkals-coaching-position
Acc. to the national team general manager, even though they have chosen Dooley, negotiations are still ongoing RT @dscpalami: to be clear, final negotiations re terms of contract is still ongoing but will be finalized when he arrives next week and meet w/ PFF Nothing is final until everyone signs on the dotted line as negotiations can still hit a snag, although both parties have been talking like it is a done deal. Also even though the general manager has made the choice, apparently the PFF president was not informed before the news leaked out, so he was a bit upset and said that there was still one other interview. The PFF has the final say. I hope they clear this up soon.
Dooley arrives on Thursday in Manila for final negotiations: http://sports.inquirer.net/143628/dooley-flies-in-to-ink-pff-mentorship-with-azkals
In case anybody is wondering if there is a Fil American playing or who played in MLS who would have been eligible to play for the Philippine national team, there is one in particular, who is also a member of the US national team and that is Nick Rimando, who is half Filipino. Another is former Toronto FC player Julian de Guzman who is committed to Canada . His brother Jonathan de Guzman, who plays in Europe, has been capped by the Netherlands.
Correction: Actually both de Guzman's are Fil Canadians and only one of them, Julian has played in MLS so only Nick would have been Fil American. Nick would have been a great addition to the Azkals having won the MLS MVP and other awards, especially since he has never been first choice for the US, but fortunately the Philippines actually have several solid goaltenders playing in Europe including 24 y/o Fulham backup Neil Etheridge(with 42 caps already for the Philippines), and one potential star who won the 2013 FIFA World U-2o championship with France, Alphonse Areola who has already played for Paris St Germain FC but currently on loan to Lens, still eligible to play for them.
It is official. A press conference has just been concluded announcing Thomas Dooley as the new coach of the Philippine national football team. Here is a picture of him shaking the hand of the PFF president: and another pic of him answering questions:
The first 2 official friendlies that Dooley will be coaching will be on Mar 1 with Malaysia and Mar 5 with Ajerbaijian. The 2nd is on a FIFA match date, so all the players will be available for him to evaluate.
Keep us updated man want to see if Azkals qualify to the AFC Cup in Australia next year. Think they got a lot of potential
Will do. You can also check the Philippines bigsoccer thread as well. “I’m very honored, humbled and very excited to take this task,” said the 52-year-old Dooley, who played 81 times for the United States. First order of business for Dooley, who also skippered the Americans in the World Cup, is the Azkals’ build-up for the AFC Challenge Cup in May. “The goal that we have in the coming months is winning the Challenge cup. I’m very happy to take this task. It will not be easy,” he also said. “This is the most important thing for me. I don’t even think of the Asian Cup yet. I’m taking it step by step. The clear goal is to win the Challenge cup.” http://sports.inquirer.net/143786/world-cup-vet-thomas-dooley-named-azkals-coach#ixzz2sc6F10SC
I had no idea Rimando was Filipino. Cool trivia nugget. You can look into Yuji Takahashi of Kyoto Sanga, though it might be a waste of time in the short term since he's an active Japan U-20 international. But you can get the conversation started and maybe ask for his sister's number.
We have talked about Yuji on the Philippines thread in the past. He is actually playing a position that the Philippines has a desperate need in, young tall centerbacks. However, the Japanese tend to be very nationalistic and while they are part of the Japanese national youth teams, I don't think they will consider playing for anybody else. His sisters are all models in Japan from what I understand. Sorry I don't have their number man. Besides I don't speak Nippongo. If you can, and you get to talk to him sometime, maybe you can ask him if he is interested. I can connect him to the right people.
Gotcha, sounds like Azkals fans have done their homework. I'd say though the issue is more that Yuji is in the YNT setup for a World Cup nation, rather than "nationalism"...maybe check on him in 5 years to see if he's plateaued at a level below Japan NT standards, then you might have a real debate.
Yeah the players with dual citizenship in countries that have World Cup history tend to be a lost cause for us if they are serious candidates for the senior team. That is why chances are Alphonse Areola will never play for the Philippines, since they are already talking about him in France as being groomed to be the future goalkeeper for Les Bleus. Alphonse's parents are both Filipinos. He also speaks Tagalog fluently and once dreamed as a kid of playing for the Philippines but the lure of the bigger stage probably means we will lose him to France. Same thing happened with David Alaba of Bayern Munich FC. Funny thing was David was proudly waving the Philippine flag as well as the Austrian flag, after Bayern won the UEFA Champions League last year. He is a proud Filipino even though he plays for another country. Austria even made him the youngest player to play for their country at 17 in an officially game, when they heard other federations were talking to him.
Yes he was waving 3 flags in the UEFA Champions league. I guess he needed to please both parents as well as his home country. Incidentally he might be the first player of Filipino heritage to have ever won the UEFA Champions league.
I suppose you can check in with English language journalists for Japanese football, like Cesare Polenghi or Dan Orlowitz for Goal.com Japan - actually I think they're still listed as mods for BS Japan, haha. Try Twitter or maybe ask @Dax? It's funny because in America half-Pinoys sorta sneak up on you - "you never told me you're half Asian!?" Else people around them just assume they're Mexican.
Mexicans and Filipinos share a common Spanish cultural heritage and Spanish surnames. In fact Mexican laws have special provisions, making it easier for Filipinos to immigrate there because the Philippines was governed via Spanish Mexico during the Spanish colonial era although nowadays very few people ever do, since they prefer going to the US. Some Filipinos in California also have Spanish blood as well just like many Mexicans, so you wouldn't even know they are Asian until they tell you since they carry Spanish names. In fact there is a tradition of Filipinos of Spanish heritage(this doesn't include those recruited from abroad who are dual citizens) playing for the Philippines national football team dating back to the early part of the 20th century, the latest being the captain of the national team, Al Borromeo. The leading goalscorer(if you include both friendlies as well as official games) in Barcelona FC history is Fil Spaniard Paulino Alcantara who played back in the early 20th century, was born and raised in the Philippines. He was largely responsible for inflicting the biggest defeat in Japanese national football team history, a 15-2 shellacking in 1917 by the Philippines. BTW, setting the history lesson aside, thanks for the info on Takahashi. It is amazing how many members of bigsoccer have connections to blogs or publications, esp in the Asian forums.
Funny quote by Thomas Dooley: "The coach repeatedly used the term “Soccer” during the press conference, the more commonly used name for the game in the United States. I reminded him that he can now go back to using “Football” and he replied “Good. I don't like using 'Soccer.'”