RP booters vow strong showing in Tiger Cup

The Philippine men’s football team is ready and raring to put up a big fight in the Tiger Cup, also known as the Asian championship, set on Dec. 15-29 in Jakarta and Singapore.

Now in Singapore for its final preparations, the RP squad is composed of Edmundo Mercado Jr., Leo Alfred Jaena, Ziggy Tonog, Ian Araneta, Wilson dela Cruz, Billy Estrella, Roel Gener, Jimmy Dona, Alvin Rafel Ocampo, Ali Bernard Go, Alfredo Fernando Gonzalez, Marjo Allado, Mark Peterson Villan, Jeffrey Liman, Dan Pradernal, Neil Jonson Calinawagan, Richard Canedo, Joshua Fegidero, Alvin Ray Montanez and Solomon John Licuanan.

Japanese Sugame Kambe is the head coach with Jose Ariston Caslib and Edwin Cabalida as his assistants. The other officials are Luzmindo Fajardo, delegation head; Joseph Vincent Santos, team manager; Alexander Carpio, physiotherapist; Florante Valencia, goalkeeper coach; and Arnold Fernandez, security officer.

A young team with an average age of 22-23 years old, the Filipinos will make their elimination round debut on Dec. 17 against Myanmar at the Senayan Stadium in Jakarta.

The Philippines is also slated to meet Vietnam on Dec. 19, Cambodia on Dec. 21 and Indonesia on Dec. 23.

"We hope to improve on our team’s performance in the last Tiger Cup four years ago," said coach Kambe through an interpreter. The Filipinos battled Cambodia to a 1-1 draw in 1998.

The Japanese coach said, "The team is hardworking, it knows what to do with the ball in offense and consistently comes up with a compact high pressure defense."