WEISS BELIEVES DESPITE SUSPENSIONS, AZKALS WILL DESTROY TURKMENISTAN?S FOOTBALL
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 15 Mar 2012
Michael Weiss.
A confident Philippine Azkals coach Michael Weiss believes that even with the suspensions meted out to key players Angel Guirado and James Younghusband and the injury of Jason Sabio the team spirit is high as the Azkals hope their historic run will continue and they will beat Turkmenistan to earn a berth in the AFC ?Challenge Cup? finals for the very first time.
ABS-CBN Studio 23 will telecast what promises to be a gripping match ?live? at 4:00 p.m. with commentators Bob Guerrero and injured Azkals team captain Ali Borromeo.
In an overseas telephone conversation with the Manila Standard, Weiss said ?we don?t need to show too much respect because Turkmenistan was in a much easier group where they played two weak teams in Maldives and Nepal and easily passed them.?
The Philippines after a solid game against defending champions North Korea who had seven world cup players lost 0-2 but came back to defeat 2008 champions India 2-0 and 2006 champions Tajikistan 2-1 with a classic late header by Angel Guirado following an equalizer from prolific goal-scorer Phil Younghusband who raised his total tally of goals for the Azkals in international matches to 21.
In the latest FIFA world rankings the Philippines which is bound to move up after its continuing improvement is likely to move up from its current No. 156 ranking which is ten rungs higher that Turkmenistan at 166.
Weiss described Turkmenistan as having ?a young side, a youthful side but still lacking in experience. We will give them what we gave Tajikistan by playing disciplined football which they don?t like. They want to play football and we will destroy their football a little bit and hopefully be the winners here.?
The German coach who has steered the Azkals to their finest finish in the Challenge Cup said he ?expects clear improvement from (Chieffy) Calidong and (Paul) Mulders. They had to go through the tournament and adapt to the situation because both of them have not played for a long time. Chieffy especially that tomorrow (Friday) we will shine again.?
After a training session at 3:30 p.m. Nepal time, Weiss will decide on his line-up even as he emphasized that ?the players who will come in now as replacements have worked like hell and they want to prove themselves.?
However, Weiss did not wish to reveal his possible choice of players to replace Guirado, James Younghusband and Sabio because he wanted to maintain the eagerness and competitive spirit of the aspirants until not too long before game-time.
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