I think Matthew Baldisimo will have a good chance of playing in at least one of the 3 games during this WC qualifier for the Philippines with the thin roster. If he can impress the coaching staff there will probably be plenty of future callups in line for him in the future.
Coach Scott Cooper gives his assessment of the Qatar Camp as the team continues its preparation for the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers www.facebook.com/TheAzkalsPH
China dominated Guam 7-0 today so they are now ahead 3 points ahead of the Philippines in their WC qualifying group with each team having 3 more games to play.
Nah they just need to win against Guam and Maldives. China is already far ahead in goal differential. I don't expect them to beat China but if they can surprise them off a counter and win by just one goal and China loses or ties Syria then they can advance to the next stage of the WC qualifiers just based on points accumulated in their group. I don't expect that to happen though.
THE upcoming joint qualification of the 2022 Fifa World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup where the Philippine Azkals will be playing has been moved from Suzhou, China to Dubai, according to multiple reports. The Chinese Football Association (CFA) made the announcement, Reuters reported, after members of the Maldives and Syria national squad were infected with COVID-19. Titan Sports Plus, meanwhile, reported Maldives and Syria are still in Dubai as they were not cleared to enter China by authorities. Reuters also reported authorities have required Maldives and Syria to undergo quarantine, which will make them unavailable to play their matches in China. https://www.spin.ph/football/fifa/p...J5SF9IkIqsM5XBHIUisfp8WUWhAysLMF11Y_4s1aw1QUM As for the Philippines, the players themselves were negative but several Philippine team officials were also not given permission to enter China. They were negative on 2 PCR tests. However they were positive for IGM antibodies due to recent vaccination or because they has a previous history of being Covid 19 positive in 2020. GM Dan Palami said "every member of the delegation plays an important role and we would have been left severely short handed in China if the games pushed through there". "The developments will allow us to get more training time before these important matches. The Philippines will explore every possibility to further strengthen the squad that we have now. Our priority remains the health and safety of every individual in the team." https://www.facebook.com/TheAzkalsPH/photos/a.291788334336999/1805556656293485/ This kind of benefits the Philippines since they don't have to play an away game in China but they are still missing key players and as China's dominant 7-0 game against Guam proved, their 5 naturalized players from Brazil, Spain and England proved to be a class above their opponent with Brazilians Elkeson and Carvalho scoring 3 goals between them. Interestingly China allowed 30,000 fans to watch the China-Guam game without any spacing. If Syria and Maldives are placed under quarantine, that probably means a postponement as well for those matches between them and the rest of the group.
They also have 3 slots available for the 23 man roster since they have only 20 players on the team right now, so it is possible they will try to add some more. With the Syria and Maldives quarantine possibly lasting a week or two, the potential postponement for the group will give them more time to add those players especially those that had passport issues that prevented them from joining the team in the first place. This is of course presuming that AFC tournament officials will allow that. I wonder though how the postponements will affect the AFC Champion's League schedule and rosters originally scheduled for the end of June. Several players on the Philippine national team are part of 2 clubs that will participate in that league which might conflict with the delayed WC qualifying ties. I am sure other teams in the AFC Champion's League will also similarly be affected.
The PFF stated that it is awaiting details from the Asian Football Confederation for a decision as to where the Azkals will accomplish their remaining Group A fixtures although earlier reports stated that the neutral venue in question is set to be Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. “While the PFF remains hopeful for an agreement among the Participating Member Associations (PMAs), China PR, Guam, Maldives, and Syria on the venue as well as the schedule of the matches, the federation stresses the importance of the health and safety of everyone involved in the competition,” it said. “The cancellation of the Group A matches in China PR has left a huge financial impact on the PFF as it needed to cancel the chartered flight at the last minute,” lamented the PFF." The Azkals were scheduled to face Guam on June 3, China on June 9 and the Maldives on June 15 before the sudden change of plans happened. As it stands, the Philippines are third in Group A with 7 points and are targeting three wins to have a chance to make it through the next qualification phase. If there is a silver lining in this situation, it is that coach Scott Cooper has more time to gel his squad and maybe even re-invite players who have initially been cut from the lineup due to injury or lack of paperwork. “We urge the fans to remain patient as we wait for a fair and reasonable decision on the venue and schedule of our matches,” concluded Palami. tiebreakertimes.com.ph/tbt/azkals-to-stay-put-in-doha-after-fifa-world-cup-qualifier-changes/209476
If you guys win those 3 games and head to the next stage of qualifying then it is the final stage of Asian qualifying and then it should be interesting to see who Philippines draw in that round
Will spectators be allowed in the games in UAE? If so, there may be a sizable number of Filipino overseas workers who could turn out and support the Azkals. Not guaranteed that Philippines would even advance to the 3rd round of WCQ as a 2nd-place finisher. They'll have to be among the four best 2nd-place finishers to advance.
I have no idea about crowds being allowed in Dubai or any potential host which by the way has not yet been officially decided. Should Qatar win Group E(which it is currently leading) or be among the four best runners-up, they will advance to 2023 AFC Asian Cup only. The fifth best runner-up will take Qatar's place in the World Cup qualifying third round since Qatar is already the WC host. The results against the 5th placed team will not be counted because of North Korea's withdrawal. Therefore right now China, the current 2nd place team in Grp A is only 6th among the 2nd place aspirants from all the groups so they won't even make it yet. The final 2nd placed team(China, Maldives or the Philippines) in Grp A needs to win their remaining matches to get the best change to qualify.
I'm wondering now why the final matches are being hosted by one country within the group instead of being at a neutral country. It gives the host country a definite homefield advantage (especially if spectators are allowed in stadium), even if they are designated the away side, as China was yesterday against Guam. As it stands (and it's still too early to be certain), China won't advance further in WCQ, but neither would they continue in Asian Cup qualifying as they're the hosts.
The remaining AFC Grp A WC qualifying matches will be moved to the UAE although it looks like the Philippines will have China as their first oppponent without facing Guam first which is unfortunate since they haven't played a game together(not even friendlies) in nearly 2 years.
It looks like Gerrit Holtmann is working or might have received his Philippine passport already. He just sent a photo of himself in front of the Philippine embassy in Germany to Azkals GM Dan Palami posting 'see you soon'. Considering his club just got promoted to the Bundelisga 1 next year after winning Bundesliga 2 this year where he played starting midfield, among the Philippine national team members he will be the player playing in the highest level league at the moment. He did play in the Bundesliga 1 before though with Mainz from 2016 to 2019. He also used to play for the U20 German national football team.
@Ofori BTW, one of the Filipinos who was recently called up in the national team has a father who is from Ghana, Jefferson Tabinas. He plays in the J2 League in Japan. He was born and grew up in Japan though and I believe only carries a Philippine passport since Japan's citizenship laws doesn't recognize native born individuals as citizens. Here is an interview he gave at the Qatar training camp. www.facebook.com/TheAzkalsPH/videos/262648545616364 It seems his mother has been teaching him the Filipino language Tagalog a bit. He can speak it to a certain degree and has a decent Filipino accent. There was a report that said he was trilingual(Japanese, English and Filipino).
This is great...but Tabinas could have played for Japan but chose you guys...that's something but I can only hope he develops into a star for you guys
I don't think he can play for Japan. They don't recognize native born individuals without Japanese parents as citizens. It might require intervention from the Japanese parliament to accomplish that. Besides Japan has a lot more pros in the J1 League who can play for them before even considering Jefferson who plays in the J2 League. He is considered a good defender in Japan though especially in the air and like most Japanese football players have very good technique.
Because of the slight delay, it looks like they were able to call up 2 additional former members of the national team(Manny Ott and Carli de Murga) to make it 22 players on the roster. Unfortunately none of the new European pros they were depending upon to reinforce the team will be able to make it though.
You guys play China tomorrow and this game for you guys is basically a must win game. If you guys lose, you have no chance at finishing in 2nd place. Even if you guys draw with China, it will give them 11 points and you guys only 8 points. So basically it is either win or go home for you Azkals tomorrow if you really think about it especially for that 2nd place spot.
Azkals resume WCQ bid against China SHARJAH, UAE – Notwithstanding the challenges in competing amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden change in venue and schedules, the Philippines looks to deliver a strong performance as the Azkals resume their campaign in the joint qualifying tournament for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup here. The Azkals face China at 9 p.m. on Monday (Tuesday, 1 a.m. in Manila) in their first match since a 0-1 defeat to Syria in November 2019. Sitting in third spot in the group with seven points, the Azkals have an outside chance to reach the third round of the WCQ and an outright Asian Cup spot, although a place in the next round of Asian Cup qualifying is a more realistic and doable task. The team has added veterans Carlie De Murga and Manny Ott to the current lineup with the defender joining the squad in training last Saturday. Due to limited flights from Kuala Lumpur, Ott will be arriving Monday to link up with the team that has newcomers in Jeff Tabinas, Bernd Schipmann, Michael Kempter, Oliver Bias, Oliver Bias, Matthew Baldissimo and Mark Winhoffer. Captain Stephan Schrock and Patrick Reichelt have taken on the leadership role with a relatively younger squad for the competiton. “Right now the team is upbeat, we’re very motivated,” said Azkals manager Dan Palami. “We’re aiming for nine points here. Of course, there have been some major health concerns that we have raised to AFC and Fifa but we’re trying to cope with it and trying to focus on the game on Monday. We’re quite optimistic and the players are motivated to perform.” The Azkals earlier noted the change in the sequence of matches as Guam was supposed to be their first opponents at the resumption of the centralized competition only for the AFC to switch it to China. Palami also raised concerns over the supposed bubble here in Sharjah, which was only put in place a day after the Azkals arrived. The matches were supposed to be played in Suzhou, China, but due to challenges encountered by teams entering the country, the AFC moved the tournament to the UAE. The Philippine Football Federation had to cancel the chartered flight from Doha to Shangai at the last minute. “Certainly in the past 10-11 years, this has been one of the most difficult (competition) that we had understandably because of the COVID protocols,” said Palami. “These are just challenges that we need to overcome so we can focus on the game.” Despite the challenges faced by the Azkals, Palami sees no reason they can’t play their hearts out here. “They’ll be fighting really hard and make sure the country is represented very well,” he said. “It is what it is and we have to push through no matter what.” http://theazkals.com/news/azkals-resume-wcq-bid-against-china/