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[av_heading heading=’PH fights Kyrgyzstan in final Suzuki Cup tune-up ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – The Philippine men’s football team will have its final tune-up heading into the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup when it faces Kyrgyzstan in an international friendly tonight at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
This will be the second time Azkals and Kyrgyzstan will face-off this year. Their first encounter was on Sept. 5 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where Azkals won, 2-1.
Leading the way in Azkals are Phil and James Younghusband, Stephan Schrock, Martin Steuble, Iain Ramsay, Misagh Bahadoran, Daisuke Sato, Dennis Villanueva, Simon Greatwich, Mark Hartmann, Kevin Ingreso, and Ronald Muller.
Completing the lineup are Manuel Ott, Jose Porteria, Amani Aguinaldo, Paolo Bugas, Jeffrey Christiaens, Kenshiro Daniels, Patrick Deyto, Ilonggo Shirmar Felongco, Dominic del Rosario, Junior Munoz, and Nick O’Donnell.
Heading into its match-up against Kyrgyzstan, the Thomas Dooley-mentored Azkals was on a two-game losing skid in the hands of Bahrain (3-1) and North Korea Cholima (3-1).
But despite the twin defeats, Azkals still climbed to 124th place in the latest FIFA/Coca Cola world rankings.
“I am always positive. I know what the team can do. We will need some magic stuff and hopefully we can make it work out,” Dooley said. “The games against North Korea and Bahrain were very important. We get some great, eye-opening information.”
Azkals was in a tougher group in the AFF-Suzuki Cup with defending champions Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia. Only the top two teams from the Philippine stage will move on to the semifinals against the top two teams from the Myanmar stage./PN
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