The Philippine Football Federation has announced the squad list of the Philippines Men’s National Football Team in its upcoming FIFA international friendlies against Bahrain and North Korea this October.
The announcement was made on the official PFF website. Azkals coach Thomas Dooley selected 24 players to represent the Philippines.
The 24 players are: Roland Muller, Patrick Deyto, Nick O’Donnell, Daisuke Sato, Luke Woodland, Dennis Villanueva, James Younghusband, Phil Younghusband, Kevin Ingreso, Stephan Schrock, Martin Steuble, Manny Ott, Mike Ott, Iain Ramsay, Misagh Bahadoran, Paolo Bugas, Daniel Gadia, Jim Munoz, Kenshiro Daniels, OJ Porteria, Fitch Arboleda, Simon Greatwich, and Dominic Del Rosario.
The likes of Neil Etheridge and Javier Patino are out for undisclosed reasons, while the likes of Schrock, Porteria and Gadia return. Chances are that majority of the players selected will be the ones who will comprise the squad for the upcoming 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup which will be hosted by the Philippines this November.
The Philippines shall play Bahrain on October 7, 2016 (Friday), and then North Korea on October 10, 2016 (Monday). Both countries were grouped with the Philippines in the past 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifying campaign.
In a sudden turn of events, the historic Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila will host the two fixtures, and not the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bulacan as previously announced.
Kickoff times for the games are tentatively penciled at 3:30PM. If the Rizal Memorial Stadium’s floodlights will be operational, then 8:00PM will be the kickoff time for both games.
Tickets for both games are already on sale. With the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup just a month away, the Azkals and local Philippine football fans need to get ready with and these two fixtures provide the best opportunity to do so.
