Aiming to bounce back from the heavy defeat against Uzbekistan, the Philippine Football Federation released the twenty-two man Philippine Men’s National Football Team lineup for the upcoming match versus group leaders North Korea. The match will be held in Pyongyang on October 8, 2015.
Popularly known as the Azkals, this will be their fourth 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifying match. Previous results include a 2-1 home win opposed to Bahrain, a 2-0 victory over Yemen in Doha, and the 1-5 disaster that was against Uzbekistan.
The aim of the Azkals is still to finish as one of the four best second placers in the current round of qualifying matches. Finishing as one of the four best second placers guarantees a slot in the next edition of the AFC Asian Cup.
North Korea is currently ranked 126 in the latest FIFA World Rankings, one place below the Philippines which is at 125.
Leading the players selected by Azkals Coach, Thomas Dooley, is his captain Phil Younghusband. Veteran center-back Rob Gier is back from his injury, while Javier Patino and Juani Guirado are out of the lineup. Neil Etheridge will be motivated to put up a better performance in Pyongyang after oicking up the ball five times from his own net in the Uzbekistan game. Daisuke Sato and Stephan Schrock should be eyeing a place in the starting eleven after their impressive individual performances against Uzbekistan.
Completing the lineup are Amani Aguinaldo, Misagh Bahadoran, Paolo Bugas, Kenshiro Daniels, Patrick Deyto, Kevin Ingreso, Jerry Lucena, Paul Mulders, Roland Muller, Manny Ott, Stephan Palla, OJ Porteria, Iain Ramsay, Patrick Reichelt, Martin Steuble, Dennis Villanueva and Luke Woodland.
Following this match, another tricky away fixture awaits the Azkals as they would have to travel to Bahrain who shall be their opponents on October 13, 2015.
