Azkals could hold own sans aces

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Azkals coach Michael Weiss expressed belief Phl could still field a strong roster to the AFF Suzuki Cup even in the worst case scenario that their key players based abroad couldn’t make it to the Nov. 24-30 bootfest in Bangkok.

At this point, Weiss said the clubs of Angel Guirado (Salgaocar) and Stephan Schrock  (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim) had already turned down their request, while they are still banking on the goodwill of the mother clubs of goal keepers Neil Etheridge (on loan with Bristol Rovers) and Roland Muller (MSV Duisburg ) as well as Paul Mulders (ADO Den Haag), Jerry Lucena  (Esbjerg), and Dennis Cagara (Karlsruher SC) for their release.

“These players give us stability. This will be the problem for all the other players as well but it doesn’t mean they will not come,” said the German mentor during Wednesday night’s send off for the team hosted by Suzuki Philippines.

“It’s (availability of foreign-based players) going to be last minute and we have to be patient. The good news is that we have a talented group here and we will field a strong team anyway.” he added.

For a good part of the year, Weiss has trained   a local-based crew spearheaded by Phil and James Younghusband, Chieffy Caligdong, Denis Wolf, Patrick Reichelt, Misagh Bahadoran, Jeff Christiaens, Marwin Angeles, Matthew Uy, and Jason Sabio for the Suzuki Cup.

“We have many options; normally you have pool of 18-20 players, we have 25 easily,” said Weiss.

He expressed belief that players like Phl-based keeper Eduard Sacapano “can rise to the occasion much more than we think right now.”

“I will always try to give everyone who’s  in the group the best possible confidence and I have a very strong belief that this team will play very good football in Thailand, hopefully we’ll also get result,” said Weiss, who will have to trim the 35-man lineup to a Final 22 for the actual battle against  Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar in the so-called Group of Death. 

Two Fil-fors are already here – Chris Greatwich, a vital cog in the Azkals’ starmaking semis performance in the 2010 Suzuki Cup, and Guirado’s brother, Juani, who played solidly in the Pinoy booters’ bronze medal campaign in the AFC Challenge Cup last March.

The Azkals are in the stretch of their preparations , playing Singapore in a friendly on Nov. 15 in Cebu.