Patiño beefs up Azkals vs Yemen

MANILA, Philippines – Fil-Spanish striker Javier Patiño is expected to boost the offense as he rejoins the Philippine Azkals in next week’s all-important home match against Yemen in the Fifa World Cup qualifiers at Rizal Memorial Stadium.

Patiño, who missed the Azkals’ back-to-back away assignments against North Korea and Bahrain last month due to a hamstring injury, has been called for duty again as the Pinoy booters try to revive their bid in Group H of the WCQ.

The Azkals stand in third spot in the group with seven points behind North Korea’s 13 and Uzbekistan’s nine and face the daunting task of sweeping their last three games to keep their hopes of advancing to the third round alive.

Plying his trade in the Chinese Super League with the Henan Jianye, Patiño suited up in the Azkals’ first three matches in the qualifiers. He scored one in Phl’s 2-1 upset of Bahrain in Bulacan and issued two assists in the succeeding 2-0 disposal of Yemen in Doha, Qatar and also started for the team in a 1-5 home loss to Uzbekistan.

Like Patiño, defender Juani Guirado is returning to the fold after an injury.  

Also tapped for the Yemen outing are Amani Aguinaldo, Misagh Bahadoran, Kenshiro Daniels, Patrick Deyto, Neil Etheridge, Rob Gier, Kevin Ingreso, Jerry Lucena, Paul Mulders, Roland Muller, Manny Ott, Stephan Palla, OJ Porteria, Iain Ramsay, Patrick Reichelt, Simone Rota, Daisuke Sato, Stephan Schrock and Dennis Villanueva.

Captain Phil Younghusband completed the 23-man roster released by the Philippine Football Federation yesterday but the team’s top scorer has accumulated two yellow cards in the tourney and would have to serve suspension in the game.

Defender Luke Woodland was unavailable for the match due to commitment with his club Chester FC.

Meanwhile, the Philippines dropped three notches to 137th in the November world ranking released by the Fifa Thursday.

The country gained 150.88 points from the Azkals’ gutsy 0-0 draw with North Korea last Oct. 8 but it failed to get much in a 0-2 loss to Bahrain five days later.

The Pinoy booters are ranked fourth among Group H competitors behind Uzbekistan (71), Bahrain (115), and North Korea (120) but maintained their No 1 position among Southeast Asians.