Generally we are far behind the other domestic homegrown SEA players in other countries. Until we reach that level, I doubt we will see a local player in the J League in the near term. On the other hand, some of our foreign born players who have moved to the UFL, might make the grade, particularly former Chelsea reserve Phil Younghusband. He is a proven striker and was the leading goalscorer in the previous Challenge Cup. Phil however makes a lot of money in endorsements and appearances locally outside of football, so he is reluctant to move abroad. He also has commitments to the Chelsea Soccer School that he runs in cooperation with Chelsea FC.
Here is a preview of the AFC Challenge Cup on the official Asian Cup website: http://www.afcasiancup.com/news/en/afc-challenge-cup-preview/yeltch1pjg4g1f8k7rnr84d9l An error in the article mentions the Philippines as a football mad nation. In reality, they would be the least football mad of the participants, since basketball is the number one sport there. Turkmenistan is probably the Philippine's strongest rival, although we already defeated them in the qualifiers for this tournament 1-0. They nearly upset former World Cup participant North Korea in the last edition of this tournament but lost in a penalty shootout. They are used to European competition with their youth teams participating in CIS(former Soviet Union) tournaments and many of their top players compete for clubs in Eastern Europe and Turkey. Right now in their training camp in Turkey they have been getting decent results against Eastern European clubs in friendlies: 1-2 loss to FC Karpaty Lviv (Ukrain Premier League) 2-0 win over FC Rustavi Metalurgist(Georgia) Rad (Serbia) 3-2 Turkmenistan FC Viitorul Constanța (Romania) 2-0 Turkmenistan Kyrgystan, another former Soviet Union nation, is unique among the participants in having a naturalized African player, David Tetteh from Ghana.
Dooley, who played for the United States in the early 1990s, said winning the Challenge Cup will be the first step that the Azkals will take towards “the next level,” but they must not stop there. “I want to play against – and it should be the goal for the players too – I want to play against the big teams,” he said. “I want to play against the Japanese, I want to play against Korea. I want to play in front of 40-50,000 people.” “So it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to play against those teams that we play right now, but… I want to play in the World Cup. It’s not possible with the team at the moment, because we cannot qualify. But if we have a year, two years, three years or four years, you’re developing the players that we have here in Manila,” he added. Winning the Challenge Cup will give the Azkals a spot in the Asian Cup, which will in turn bring the team closer to Dooley’s dream of playing against the best teams in Asia. “The players, individually, they are pretty good. They have a lot of talent, and they are technically good,” he said. “The biggest goal for me is, tactically, that we work together.” http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/sports/02/13/14/dooley-has-big-dreams-ph-azkals ----- The guy is pretty ambitious. The Challenge Cup is definitely winnable, but other than that, I think he will be brought down to soon enough but it is nice to dream.
I just read about the J league signing Indonesia's Indo Dutch player Bachdim and Vietnam's Le Cong Vinh. Aside from the Philippine's leading striker Phil Younghusband , who doesn't really want to leave the Philippines, they might want to consider former Cordoba CF Fil Spaniard Javier Patino who is a consistent scorer(14 goals in 20 matches) in the Thai Premier League with Buriram United. Javier also has 2 goals in 2 caps with the Azkals.
Cool. Maybe when the J-League expands the Southeast Asian player slot to include Filipinos...but I imagine he's paid well by Buriram?
I would think so. They bought him from Spanish 2nd division club Cordoba FC after they heard he was playing for the Philippines. The Thai leagues have lately been trying to sign some of the European based Azkals as well, although some refused to leave Europe.
BTW, one of the FilAms who played in the UFL last season from San Francisco State U and who wanted to tryout for the Philippines as well(although he hasn't been called up yet) Antonio Ugarte, also was signed by Thai team Nara United this season.
Dooley called up a 30+ man squad from the UFL for evaluation(twice a week during the season, as agreed upon with the UFL as well as in extended training camps), including FilAmericans OJ Porteria formerly with DC United Academy and youth teams, Nate Burkey(VCU Rams), and Charles Pettys (Kentucky Wildcats) from Columbus, OH. This list only includes those playing in the UFL and will probably be evaluated in the first friendly against Malaysia in March 1. Since Malaysia will be preparing for the Asian Cup qualifiers, they will be bringing their starting squad, while the European based Azkals will be absent, so don't expect too much. The game on Mar. 5 against Ajerbaijianwill be a better barometer, since it will be on a FIFA match date and will include many of the European based players.
Will be interesting to see if Dooley's best roster looks any different than that of Hans Weiss. Maybe he'll uncover some players able to provide quality in positions they lack.
Not that Thomas would look here but here are some Philippine nationals playing in Switzerland. http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/martin-steuble/profil/spieler_79434.html http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/roland-mueller/profil/spieler_28913.html Who has played 9 times with the full national team. http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/novem-baumann/profil/spieler_183308.html Seems committed to Switzerland though. http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/michael-kempter/profil/spieler_183448.html
Amusingly, the UFL site lists Pettys as being from the United Kingdom; I guess they misinterpreted "UK". On a semi-related note, this is the list of Americans I know of playing in the UFL: Joshua Beloya (Ceres), Alex Borromeo (Kaya), Nathaniel Burkey (Pachanga Diliman), Jason Cunliffe( Pachanga Diliman), Anton del Rosario (Kaya), Sean Illif (Manila Jeepney), OJ Porteria (Kaya), Jonahan Romero (Loyola), Matthew Uy (Team Soceroo), and Philip Zemen (Agila). Do you know of any others (aside from Pettys)?
Martin Steuble just got his Philippine passport last week and I presume at some point Dooley will call him up. Mueller is already part of the national team and is alternating the starting goalkeeper position with Neil Etheridge of Fulham. Mueller played in the 2nd Bundesliga for the past few years, before moving to Switzerland. The other 2 are still very young and play in a league lower than Mueller, so they haven't really attracted a lot of attention yet from the coaching staff.
Beloya, Borromeo, Burkey, del Rosario, Porteria, and Uy have all played for the Azkals in the past at least once. Borromeo was the former captain of the national team but serious injuries have sidelined him for the past few years and he might have lost a step or two although he is trying to make a comeback. He actually grew up mostly in the Philippines even though he was born in the US and is based there. Uy wasn't called up by Dooley, even though he played for them last year when the Euros where not available. He used to be part of the U-20 US youth team pool. I am not sure what team he is playing for since I don't see him on the list of Team Socceroo. del Rosario is trying to get back to the national team after being exiled by Weiss, because of attitude problems. Beloya is American but grew up and learned his football in Europe and then moved to the Philippines a few years ago with his parents. I am not sure why he wasn't called up. Cunliffe, and Romero are members of the Guam national soccer team, all of whom are technically Americans citizens and can play for the US as well. I don't know much about Illiff and Zemen since they have never been called up by the national team. Here is the complete list: http://www.azkalsfootballteam.com/news.php?id=446 Chris Greatwich is from the UK but played for as well as coached the Morris County(New Jersey) Colonials of the NPSL here in the US, before moving back to the Philippines to play in the UFL. He played for Hartwick College when they made the NCAA tournament in 2005.
Other Fil Americas who have played in the UFL(at least last year) but have not been called up yet are Antonio Ugarte(now in Thailand with Nara United) and Loyola Marymount midfielder Vincent Ocampo. Neil Ignacio of UC Riverside also tried out for the national team, but did not play for any UFL teams to maintain his athletic eligibility in the NCAA. So far early in the UFL season, Charles Pettys has impressed along with Fil Italian Simone Rota, who has played professionally in the lower leagues in Italy. Both are defenders which is a position they are specifically targeting to find new players.
I forgot to mention that Cunliffe and Romero have been capped by Guam and therefore cannot play for the US anymore. Guam like the Philippines has been adding a lot of foreign based players(mostly from the continental US) and has risen in the FIFA standings as a result.
Finally, I should also have included Fil Am Jason Sabio from the U of Alabama, who was the starting centerback 2 years ago in the previous edition of the Challenge Cup while playing in the UFL, all this while taking a sabbatical from law school. He has gone back to the US to finish his law degree. He was actually offered a contract to play professionally for a club in Germany after finishing his undergrad studies, but because of his academic priorities and other personal obligations, declined the offer.
DOOLEY: No, not really. I know a kid who played in our academy, Pateadores, who is from the Philippines. His father asked me to train his kid and I did that on the side a little bit. He told me that I should train the national team because they really need to do something. I said I would love to. I’m looking for a coaching job but it is very tough here. He said, “Let me see what I could do.” It was just a talk. He then got in touch with the women’s national team coach. He contacted them and said, “You guys are looking for a coach at the moment—why don’t you consider Thomas?” They e-mailed him right back saying I should send a resume over. That’s what I did. They asked if I could come in for an interview and I said I could do that. I told them I had games in three weeks and it would be impossible for me to come over. They then said, “What if we came over to L.A.?” They flew over and we met for a 2-3 hour interview. After, I said I really feel there is something here I really think I can help. We talked about the details, and 2-3 days later we agreed. This is the first I've ever heard of this story. I always thought the connection was made when the LA Galaxy played in the Philippines. Thanks for the link.
As much as Dooley likes over there, it seems that he has been giving a good impression over there as well. They have started the twice a week training for the UFL based players and they have been impressed with his training style. Here are some comment by the players: Both James and Phil Younghusband as well as former national team skipper Aly Borromeo had good words about Dooley, who replaced German coach Michael Weiss earlier this month. “He’s been very transparent with the group,” said James. “We had lunch before training, and he gave us a PowerPoint presentation to explain his plan, so it’s good that he has a plan.” “He just wants us to play simple football, which is good, because it’s something that I was taught as a young boy when I was training in the UK. Simplicity is genius, and all the best players in the world keep it simple,” he added. Phil said the national team players were excited to begin working with Dooley. “Mabait siya, and alam niya("He is nice and he knows a lot"), he has the knowledge and he knows what he’s talking about,” he said. “He knows what he wants and he knows how he wants the team to play.” Borromeo, back in the training pool after recovering from an injury, said Dooley got along well with the players. “Ang okay sa kaniya, he knows what to do right away with the team,” said Borromeo. “(He wants an) attacking style of play, he wants to win the ball back in four or five seconds. So there’s already that technique that you have, so it’s good.” “He’s got good vision for the Challenge Cup, and we’re all excited,” he added. Dooley, for his part, has stressed that preparing for the Challenge Cup will be a step-by-step process, and expects that it will take a few training sessions before the Azkals adjust to his training style as well as the new drills that he introduced to the team. “It takes a while so there will be some mistakes,” he said. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/sports/02/18/14/azkals-look-impress-knowledgeable-dooley He keeps on mentioning in other interviews he has made that the national team players are technically good, but need to improve tactically which is a fairly common weakness of many Asian teams.
Kyrgyzstan is the odds-on favorite to win the tournament. Palestine is also quite strong. Whoever wins it will get murdered in the Asian Cup next year though. Beating Turkmenistan is a good objective, last Challenge Cup The Philippines lost to them in semis. Now they got them in their group.
I saw that Turkmenistan game live in the last edition. The Philippines was leading the game 1-0 when a series of defensive mistakes late in the 2nd half cost them the game(they had some key players particularly on defense red carded and unavailable for that game). They also were missing some of their best players for that tournament because it was held on non FIFA match dates and many of the European based players were not released. It will be much different this time around as the Challenge Cup will be scheduled on the pre WC rest period for both the Philippines and Turkmenistan who also have players in European clubs as well. The Philippines was able to reciprocate in kind by defeating Turkmenistan 1-0 in the qualifiers for this tournament last year and winning their group stage. Results of the Challenge Cup draw: AFC Challenge Cup Draw Group A Maldives Myanmar Kyrgyzstan Palestine Group B Turkmenistan Laos Afghanistan Philippines
I hope that Afghanistan can at least play decently. Any hint of progress in that nation is a good one.
Afghanistan has been improving a lot in the standings. They have finally been able to establish a national league a few years ago (which was banned in the Taliban era and moribund for the most part because of the continuing civil war and resulting security issues) and they have been able to recruit many foreign based players which helped them win the 2013 SAFF(South Asia) champhionship over India and advance to the Challenge Cup finals by winning their group in the qualifiers last year. They are a darkhorse team in this tournament with the ability to surprise. I consider the Philippines, Turkmenistan and Palestine the favorites based on recent play, but the other countries also have good chances to surprise in this tournament.