Only 10 days separate the Philippine Azkals and the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup which will be hosted on home soil.
Everything is being prepared for that competition and the international friendly game against Kyrgyzstan tomorrow, 8:00 PM at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila will provide a stiff rehearsal for the Azkals.
It will be a revenge game of sorts for Kyrgyzstan as it loss 1-2 to the Philippines on home turf last September. Kevin Ingreso and Misagh Bahadoran were the Azkals’ goalscorers on that day.
“This will be our last game before the Suzuki Cup and we want to go to the Suzuki Cup with confidence. We know Kyrgyzstan will be a test and a strong team to play against so we’ll know where we are after the game. As players we are looking forward to the game,” said Azkals captain Phil Younghusband
Azkals coach Thomas Dooley agreed with Younghusband and reserved huge amounts of praise for the opposition. With Kyrgyzstan ranked 99th in the world and with the at Philippines 124th, Dooley knew the very well about the opposition’s quality.
Dooley shared, “They’re a very, very strong team, stronger than North Korea, stronger than Bahrain in my opinion. This is what we want. We learned a lot from the last two games and we would like to improve in this game and be ready for the most important tournament of the year, the AFF Suzuki Cup.”
Preparations for the Suzuki Cup haven’t been going well for the Philippines. The Philippines lost its last two games at home to Bahrain and North Korea. A loss against Kyrgyzstan will add another blow to the preparations which the Azkals won’t want to happen.
Nevertheless, the former USA captain knew where the Philippines’ priorities should lie.
“It will be much more challenging for us. Sometimes if you win a game it doesn’t matter how you win the game, just win it but I want to be focused on the Suzuki Cup. I want to try things out in that game to be 100 percent ready for the Suzuki Cup. There will be a little bit of change,” concluded Dooley.
Anything else than a win against Kyrgyzstan will dampen Filipino football fans’ moods before the Suzuki Cup. A win will be very much needed to boost morale. Expect Dooley, Younghusband and the rest of the squad to push for it come kickoff.
