Playing for flag and country

The Philippine Azkals are now in Manama to face Kyrgyzstan on the 15th in an unofficial exhibition game and against host Bahrain on the 17th. As expected, several players are again absent in the training camp due to various reasons. The upside is there are new and returning Azkals to the team.

Azkals present in Manama are Neil Etheridge, Patrick Deyto, Kevin Mendaza, Jesse Curran, Daisuke Sato, Audi Menzi, Dennis Villanueva, Kevin Ingreso, Justin Baas, Jhan Melliza, Kenshiro Daniels, Jefferson Tabinas, OJ Porteria, Manu and Mike Ott, Sandro Reyes, Enrique Linares, Patrick Reichelt, Bienve Marañon, Marwin Angeles, Simone Rota, Joshua Grommen, Pocholo Bugas at Jarvey Gayoso.

Missing in the line-up are Gerrit Holtmann, Julian Schwarzer and Santiago Rublico either because of injuries, club commitments and other reasons. Rublico, from what I heard, was not given permission to leave for the Bahrain camp because the request came in too late. As per FIFA rules, “An association wishing to call up a player must notify the player in writing at least 15 days before the first day of the FIFA dates.” So feel free to speculate on what happened here. Hopefully, this kind of snafu or oversight can be avoided in the future. More on this in future columns. The much anticipated Raphael Obermair, however, is yet to suit up for the team.

In a recent chat with The Designated Kit Man, Azkals head coach Michael Weiss he revealed that included in his bucket list after the Bahrain camp is to go to Japan and catch up with two Filipino Japanese currently playing the Japanese league and convince them to play for the Azkals in the future. Aside from these prospects, there are other interesting and intriguing players on his radar. Weiss said these players will definitely bolster the team in future competitions.

“I have some plans to bring players over at the beginning of December and test them. I have a Filipino Japanese striker, who is a very interesting prospect, but have to test them first,” Weiss said.

He also added that Azkals prospects, especially in Japan and neighboring countries, offer a lot of advantages and practicality for the team specially during actual tournaments and