Phil, James willing to rejoin Azkals

MANILA, Philippines -  Although “very disappointed” that they were relegated to mere bystanders in the Azkals’ ongoing Philippine Football Peace Cup at Rizal Memorial, brothers Phil and James Younghusband expressed their continued support and commitment to the national team.

The Younghusbands, who had earlier signified their availability for the four-nation meet, said they were caught off guard by management and coaches’ decision to scratch them off the Peace Cup roster.

“We’re very disappointed, just to learn a couple of days before. I mean, we don’t know the reason why,” Phil said in a TV interview by News5’s Chiqui Roa-Puno.

The PFF pointed out “economic and non-economic reasons” for not calling up the popular brothers for the Peace Cup.

“Unfortunately, the PFF can’t meet some of the demands of the brothers,” said PFF communications head Ebong Joson in a presscon Monday. “They are economic, PFF can’t even handle half of amount they’re asking and non-economic, with regards to schedule and commitment to schedule. For example, they said they’re not free the whole of October.”

The PFF has demanded “unequivocal commitment” from Azkals players in the last three months leading to the AFF Suzuki Cup, giving compensation for their full participation in activities. The Younghusbands’ business and non-football activities apparently make them unavailable in some stretch of the training.

“We have to take into consideration our job, other commitments outside national team. But the idea of the national team is representing your country. We’d do it for free,” James said stressing that they are not after money here.

“We have other commitments but we would play for the Azkals for free,” Phil reiterated. “We’re always committed to the national team.”

James was personally looking forward to achieving a personal milestone of reaching 50 caps, which is just two games away, in the Peace Cup.

Meanwhile, in the first game of the tournament last night , Chinese Taipei scored on a late penalty to force a 2-2 draw with Macau.

Macau appeared on the verge of victory with a 2-1 lead but a handball gave the Taiwanese a lifeline in the 90th minute and Yang Chao Sun pounced on the opportunity, slamming it to the back of the net for the standoff.

Ricardo Torrão put Macau on the scoreboard first with a strike in the 45th minute but the Taiwanese drew level via Lo Chi En’s connection three minutes later.  Kin Seng Chan gave Macau the upperhand with a goal in the 56th.