Rob Gier is looking to defy the odds as a coach, just as he did when he suited up for the Philippine Azkals in his playing days.
The 42-year-old player-turned-coach will lead the Philippine Under-22 Men’s National Football Team as they target a place in the semifinals in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games hosted by Cambodia.
“It’s a good group of players. It’s really good, and it’s going to make it difficult to trim down the squad for the trip. It’s been great,” said Gier.
“They’ve bought into everything I’ve tried to do. They’ve worked incredibly hard, and they’ve given me everything, so I couldn’t be more pleased.”
Gier, who captained the Azkals during their 2014 Suzuki Cup home game against Thailand, started coaching the group on April 16, 2023. Although questions have emerged about why preparations started roughly two weeks before the team’s first game, the retired center-back is playing with the cards he has been dealt.
Nevertheless, the former Aldershot Town stalwart is not losing enthusiasm for the job and the challenges ahead. Ever the team player, he credits the system put in place at the Azkals Development Team, which is supplying the bulk of his pool, for smoothing out the cracks.
“I’ve only got a certain amount of time to be able to do stuff. The guys over at ADT have prepared the players really well. They’ve constructed a squad that’s really capable. A lot of credit needs to go to them,” he said.
“As to how I’ve instilled my philosophy to the players, it’s just honesty. I’ll be honest with the players. I’ll put my arm around them when I think they need to be looked after. I’ll have a go at them when they need to be told that they need to work a little bit harder.”
The Philippines last entered the final four of the regional games back in 1991 when Manila was the host. The past edition saw the country only win one match, a 4-0 drubbing of Timor Leste, and suffer defeats at the hands of Myanmar and Indonesia.
This time around, Gier’s men are grouped with Indonesia, Myanmar, and Timor Leste for the second successive campaign in Group A. Joining them as well as the host nation Cambodia.
(C) PFL
“I think it’s a good group. If we’d have asked for a draw, it would probably have been that type of draw. The fixtures are nicely spread out,” said the former Azkals captain. “That doesn’t go to say that teams in our group are gonna be easy by any means, but I think if we could have picked a group to be in, we would have picked that one.
“Like I said, it comes with a little bit more pressure for us. We need to make sure that we try to get out of that group. That’s my challenge to the players — let’s make sure we try and get out of that group.”
Now that he is having his campaign as a national team mentor, Gier hopes that he can impart enough knowledge and experience towards a group of players that may one day be the core of the senior Azkals squad.
For him, though, this is simply a new chapter in what has been a storied career with the Philippine Azkals. He hopes to kickstart a winning culture for a program that has suffered some very bad results in recent years.
“I’ll try to be as honest as I can and I guess my personality just comes across and hopefully people wanna come with me on the journey,” he said.
“This is gonna be a really exciting journey for me. I’m really, really proud to be back here and kind of walking into Rizal Memorial during the first training session brought back a lot of memories,” he continued.
“This is just another part of my football career and my story with the national team as well. Hopefully, my kind of enthusiasm towards the job will rub off on them and we’ll have a really good tournament.”
Gier and the Azkals U22 will open their campaign against Indonesia this Saturday at the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh with kickoff time at 5:00 PM Manila time.
