Azkals unleashed; quest is on vs Singapore in Suzuki Cup Opener

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Azkals return to the very tournament where six years ago they shed their image as the street dogs of regional football.

The Azkals who have since made an impact as a force to reckon with following their surprised stint in 2010 will open their bid in the 2016 Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup against Singapore on home turf.

After a star-making semifinal stint in 2010 and two more Final Four appearances in 2012 and 2014, the Azkals eye a finals stint or better yet a breakthrough title in the tournament being held in the Philippines for the first time.

“The team’s level of confidence is high,” Phl coach Thomas Dooley said on the eve of the Azkals’ opening game against Singapore tonight at the Philippine Sports Stadium.

“We have a positive attitude, positive energy right now and you can see it in the hotel.  There’s a good chemistry among the players and that’s very important if we want to be successful,” he added.

With home field advantage, there’s rising expectations the Azkals will outdo themselves in this edition.

“In football, anything can happen. But everything has to fall into place like players have to be fit, positive, healthy, sleep right, eat right, take the game seriously and play 100 percent of their skills. We do that, we have a chance,” said Dooley.

The Azkals kick off their bid at 8 p.m. against Singapore, a team said to be on transition and at 171st is ranked 47 places lower than them.

“Every game has a favorite and underdog. It’s good that we’re underdogs because there’s more pressure on the favorites. Anything can happen,” said Lions coach V. Sundramoorthy.

Dooley couldn’t agree more.

“I told the players the rankings doesn’t mean anything. Consider our game against Uzbekistan, which is No. 48, we lost only 1-0; and Kyrgyzstan, which is 20 rankings higher than us, we beat them 1-0. So we shouldn’t overlook them and be ready to perform the best we can,” he said.

Already missing the services of striker Javier Patino and Daisuke Sato due to club commitments, the Azkals lost one more starter in tonight’s opener as Martin Steuble has to serve his one-game suspension for his red card back in the second leg of the 2014 semifinal against the Thais.

“We will miss them but we have players who could come in and do a good job (of filling the void),” said skipper Phil Younghusband.

The other Day One match pits defending champion Thailand against Indonesia at 4:30 p.m.

The War Elephants loom as the title favorites especially after their fine showing in a 2-2 draw with reigning Asian titlist Australia in the third round of the World Cup Qualifiers.

And they’re doubly motivated to bring home the title again.

“We want to make fans in Thailand happy and get that trophy for our King (the late Bhumibol Adulyadej),” said Thai coack Kiatisuk Senamuang.