Holdovers, new faces make Azkals roster

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals will parade a mix of holdovers, new and familiar faces who are making their way back into the national team in their international friendly against Malaysia on March 1 then will call in the big guns from Europe in their outing against world-rated Azerbaijan four days later.

Against regional rival Malaysia, the Azkals will bring in nine players who didn’t get the call-up in their last friendly against India in November 2013, with new coach Thomas Dooley tapping fresh faces Kenshiro Daniels, Andrew Liauw, Nicholas O’Donnel, and Fil-Swiss recruit Martin Steuble along with returning Misagh Bahadoran, Nate Burkey, Anton del Rosario, Ruben Doctora, and Simon Greatwich.

They will join regulars Phil and James Younghusband, Ed Sacapaño, Rob Gier, Juani Guirado, Chris Greatwich, Marwin Angeles, Patrick Reichelt, OJ Porteria, Jason de Jong, Jeff Christiaens, Mark Hartmann, and youthful Amani Aguinaldo.

Dooley, who replaced Michael Weiss as head coach this month, will also make his debut in the Azkals’ bench against the Malayan Tigers at the Selayang Municipal Council Stadium.

It will interesting to note that Dooley will field in mostly standouts from the local-based United Football League, a move apparently intended to widen the base of the national pool as the Azkals gear up for the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup this May.

But World Cup veteran Dooley won’t take chances against world no. 93 Azerbaijan, calling up the reinforcements from Europe for their March 5 showdown in Dubai.

Fil-Germans Stephan Schrock and Roland Muller, Fil-British  Neil Etheridge, Fil-Spanish Javier Patiño, Fil-Danish Jerry Lucena, and Fil-Dutch Paul Mulders will be linking up with Bahadoran, Aguinaldo, Christiaens, Daniels, de Jong, del Rosario, Doctora, Gier, Chris Greatwich, Guirado, Hartmann, Porteria, Steuble, Reichelt and the Younghusband brothers as they test the Azerbaijanis.

Steuble, a mid-fielder for FC Wil 1900 in Switzerland, will have his baptism of fire in an Azkals uniform. He was part of the training team in the 2013 Philippine Football Peace Cup in Bacolod but didn’t see action yet as he hadn’t secured his Phl passport at that time.

“I’m looking forward to officially play with the Azkals,” Steuble said in the Azkals’ website.

He returned to Phl this week to attend the team’s first sessions under Dooley.

“I’m still learning from the coach. I think we are going somewhere,” said the 25-year-old Steuble.