Pinoy booters train sights on Sydney Asian Cup

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals launch their ambitious “Sydney 2015” project by competing in the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers the country is hosting from March 22-26 at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

“Sydney 2015” refers to the AFC Asian Cup in 2015 slated Down Under with powerhouse nations Japan, South Korea and Australia, and qualifier North Korea heading the list. A wild card slot to the Sydney Asian Cup will await the champion of the Challenge Cup’s main tournament in 2014 in Maldives. 

“This will be the first step towards our “Sydney 2015” project. Winner of the 2014 Challenge Cup will get a wild card entry to the Asian Cup. We hope everybody will be one with us in this,” said Azkals team manager Dan Palami during yesterday’s presscon at the Philippine Football Federation office.

First the Azkals have to hurdle the group qualifiers, in which they should top Group E or at the very least be one of two best runners-up among all the groupings, to advance to the Challenge Cup final round.

The Pinoy booters are bunched with Brunei, Cambodia and Turkmenistan in the group, tipped as a favorites with the presence of overseas-based pros like Neil Etheridge, Roland Muller, Stephan Schrock, Ray Jonsson, Dennis Cagara, Juani and Angel Guirado, Rob Gier, Jerry Lucena, Paul Mulders and their latest high-profile recruit, Fil-Spanish striker Javier Patiño.

“All the players will be available and we’ll have a hard time naming the Final 23,” said coach Michael Weiss.

“What’s very, very important is we work on making the stadium full. These players always dream of playing in a full stadium; the crowd gives them extra energy,” he added.

Skipper Chieffy Caligdong can’t stress the importance of crowd support enough.

“Malaking bagay para sa amin ang maglaro sa harap ng kababayan natin sa Rizal. Sana all-out support tayo sa Azkals, sana maging top tayo dito para mag-qualify next year sa group stage sa Maldives (We hope to get all-out support from the crowd because that will be a big boost to us players),” said Caligdong.

The Azkals will kick off their campaign against Brunei on Mar. 22, Cambodia two days later, and Turkmenistan on Mar. 26, seeking at least seven points to top the group and march into the main tourney.