'Very disappointed': Philippines scrambles to form team for Mitsubishi Electric Cup

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Football Federation (PFF) director for national teams Freddy Gonzalez admitted facing some difficulties in assembling the Philippine squad that will be competing in the Mitsubishi Electric Cup next week.

The Philippine men’s national football team (PMNFT) will be competing in the ASEAN Championship later this month. They will face Myanmar on December 12, Laos on December 15, Vietnam on December 18 and Indonesia on December 21 in the group stages.

During the launch of PUMA’s new kits that the Philippines will use during the Mitsubishi Electric Cup on Thursday, Gonzalez said that it will be a “miracle” for the whole team to be assembled especially since they need to get clearances from mother clubs.

“This Mitsubishi Electric Cup has been quite challenging for us. We’re excited about it. We’re excited about putting the best possible team we can have access to together, but it’s very challenging window because it’s not even an official match window so we’re dependent on the clubs releasing the players,” he told reporters at the sidelines of the event.

“It’s been very difficult, even here in ASEAN, to get our players released by the clubs. There is no guarantee that everybody will be available,” he added.

According to Gonzalez, Santi Rublico and Gerrit Holtmann could play for the Philippines “if we qualify for the semifinals.”

The national squad is also talking to other clubs about releasing other players, such as Patrick Strauss and Scott Woods.

“But yes, I’m very disappointed considering this is the marquee tournament of the AFF and the ASEAN Football Federation hasn’t done enough to get the best ASEAN based players to be released by their clubs,” he said.

“So it’s something we’ve been dealing with the last two weeks and it’s really annoying but what can you do, that’s just the way it is, right?”

Despite this, Gonzalez voiced optimism with the squad that they will assemble, and that they already submitted a pool of players that they will choose from.

“We have guys like Sandro Reyes, he’s gonna be there already on December 8, Michael Baldisimo is back from injury, Zico Bailey is coming, so a number of the squad that’s been around the last few months will be together,” he bared.

“Well, with every game we’re going to win every game. We’re gonna go in game by game, going in the mindset no matter who the players are here to win every game, so that’s how we’re going,” he added.

“Whoever’s available is what we have to work with so these guys already have been with each other for a while so they all know each other. We have couple of players that are new that are coming in which we’ll announce in the next couple days who’s gonna be here.”

PMNFT head coach Albert Capellas, for his part, stressed that they will try to make the squad “as strong as possible.”

“And that is something that with the players that we will go with, we will try to do our best there, to try to continue developing the team, trying to improve the team. And we hope that once the qualification from ASEAN Cup starts, that is the FIFA windows, we can get the full potential of the new Philippine national team,” he said.

“From now, Mitsubishi Cup, we'll try to do our best and we will try to, as always we say, to win game by game. Let's see our potential every game. And I'm looking forward for the official FIFA windows that we can get all the players and the strongest squad as possible. But it's something that I cannot control now.”