Phl Azkals to get 'feel' of home turf

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals hope to immediately use the Rizal Memorial pitch to fully capitalize on the homefield advantage in the facility, site of their July 3 home game against Sri Lanka in the 2014 Fifa World Cup Asian qualifiers.

According to team manager Dan Palami, the plan is to hold practices at the refurbished pitch for a week from May 16 to 22 before heading to Iloilo for a friendly game and Cebu for their team-building sessions in the last week of May. By June 1, they intend to resume practices at Rizal Memorial right until their leave for Germany on June 12 for a two-week training camp.

“We’re hoping that by the 16th, we could already do our practices at Rizal Memorial, so we can familiarize ourselves with the pitch and get a general feeling on the area,” Palami told The STAR yesterday. “We really want to take advantage of the home game by getting practices in the stadium.

The Azkals are scheduled to play Sri Lanka on hostile grounds first, on June 29, before they host the second match on July 3 in Manila.

The football pitch at the decades-old Rizal Stadium has already been renovated by the facility’s owner, the Philippine Sports Commission through an agreement with De La Salle University, but would still need some work to make international standard.

“The pitch is not 100 percent ready. Our guys will be doing another inspection by tomorrow; we’ll be bringing flaglets para makita ang areas na dapat pa ayusin; mataas pa ang grass (We’ll inspect the pitch again and see what needs to be fixed as some of the holes are covered by the grass),” he said.

Overall, more work has to be done for Rizal Memorial to make it ready for the WC qualifiers. This includes fixing and marking the seats at grandstand and bleachers area, repairing the restrooms, putting up temporary dressing rooms for the two teams, match officials, and the secretariat, and improving the VIP lounge.

“They really should start now para ma-ready yung grandstand by game time,” Palami said.

After a one-month break, the Azkals will resume training on May 9 at the Ayala Alabang Country Club, where they will be encamped for a week before testing the pitch at Rizal Memorial.