It’s now or never for the Philippine Azkals national football team as they play the crucial second leg of their FIFA World Cup second round qualifiers against the powerful Kuwait Al-Azraq squad tonight at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. The Azkals needs a 4-0 or 5-1 victory to off-set their 0-3 first leg defeat and advance to the next round. The Azkals have their chances in the opening half of the leg one match but strikers Phil Younghusband and Angel Aldeguer Guirado can not find their marks. The good news for the match tonight, which is expected to lure a jampacked partisan crowd, is the return of Aly Borromeo and Stephan Shrock in the Azkals line-up after serving their suspension in the first leg match. Both players are expected to strengthen the middle and back positions, respectively. Azkals head coach Michael Weiss will have the options to stick with the 4-4-2 formation or try to adopt the 4-3-3, which will have Younghusband, Guirado and possibly Chieffy Caligdong or even Ian Araneta up front. The 4-3-3 encourages the wingers to act as true forwards and the formation generally emphasizes attack more than defense, which is a complete contrast to their leg one game plan. The triangle up front of the aforementioned players could be supported by a creative and defensive midfield backbone of the playmaker James Younghusband, the holding midfielder Shrock and Manuel Ott as an all-rounder. The bottom line is that Weiss needs all the scoring opportunities to salvage the series. Weiss remains upbeat of the Azkals’ chances for tonight’s crucial match.
“Thursday is the match for people of the Philippines and we’ll deliver a fantastic performance, that’s what I can promise. Whether we succeed, that is another thing. If we can manage a win, that is already a fantastic achievement and it’s not something which is a coincidence because we worked very hard for it. We’ll have a more offensive setup, take a more aggressive approach.”
1 comment:
go Azkals!
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