MANILA, Philippines - For now, Azkals coach Michael Weiss will let his charges cherish the euphoria of having played against superstar David Beckham and the LA Galaxy.
But, seeing a glaring deficiency during Saturday night’s match, the German mentor will prepare a hell of a camp for their buildup for 2012 AFC Challenge Cup in March.
“The result doesn’t look so good but I’m still very positive when we start the training of the beginning of our journey,” said Weiss after the Azkals yielded a 1-6 setback to the Galaxy.
Weiss has set a return-to-camp schedule for the Azkals on Jan. 8, threatening to cut those could not keep pace with the hard training.
“We have two-and-a-half months and we will be working very, very hard. The players will have to run more than they imagine because this is what they are lacking, and if they don’t want to do that, they must stay home and then I’ll take others. I have very ambitious players.
“If there are some players who don’t want to go for the hard fight, they must understand that we can be torn apart against North Korea, Tajikistan and India. So I don’t want that,” he said.
Assessing the Azkals’ performances against Beckham and Co., Weiss said he was “extremely happy with the first half, extremely unhappy with second half.”
The Azkals were only down by one goal, 1-2, at halftime, but surrendered five goals in the last 45 minutes, as according to Weiss, “their concentration on the game dropped 50-60 percent.”
“We have to see the positive things that happened in first half. This is the way I want to see the team - sharp, aggressive, concentrated, alert. But we have to work on condition. Physically, we could see that after 60 minutes, many players dropped extremely; this is because of lack of concentration and then you make mistakes,” he said.
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, the most accomplished mentor in US national team history, basically agreed.
“I thought Phl played quite well in first half, certainly it was a close match and the third goal early in second half was a big goal for us. In the second half, I think we just wore them down, our fitness level was absolutely better and we’re getting the better of our opponent.”
Arena cited Nos. 12 (Angel Guirado), 13 (Chieffy Caligdong), and 10 (Phil Younghusband) as those who caught his eyes, having “played well on the break and counter-attack and posing a danger in the final third of the field.”